I Am Kira!
by AlmineGoneWild
Summary: Lila Ranger is an ordinary Canadian high school girl who dies one night after a terrible car accident followed by a heart attack. The next thing she knows she's waking up in an alternate world's Japan apparently in the Death Note universe, one of her favourite anime's. This would be great except...Now the death note's been placed in her hands and now there's no going back!
1. Prologue

_Prologue:_

 _(Death & Resurrection)_

 _Life and death! I suppose most people who are too wrapped up within their lives barely take notice of the significance between the two; they just take them for granted. I too have often wondered myself what it would be like, dying that is. What happens after death? Do you go to heaven, to hell? Is there somewhere else you go, do you remain on the same plain as a ghost? Or, does it just stop; is there nothing more but oblivion?_

 _See most people who are living and young don't want to have to think about death at all. Sure sometimes those questions do surface but more oft than not, humans have the tendency to quickly change the subject to something else. Then in cartoons you see funny characters mocking death entirely, trying to keep younger kids innocent while the older ones get addicted to video games where killing the most artificial characters on screen is the main objective of everything. And some people…they're just too sheltered themselves to even consider what the meanings of life and death is really about._

 _I guess I can't really say that I was an acceptation. I was pretty much just as bad as anybody else in the world. Since I'd really grown up as a sheltered kid, I never took into consideration just how real death actually was and just assumed that I was going to keep growing until I was old enough to just die of natural age. I never considered that it could all end just so suddenly, never thought that anyone could kill me and that all of the deaths in the news were too far away to hurt or really affect me. Even the death of my uncle whom I'd rarely ever seen in my life didn't seem real. Boy what an idiot I was because one day I discovered just how real death was how short my life could be._

 _I'd been hanging with some friends at the mall, a small mall on the north side of Fredericton New Brunswick and we'd been sitting on a bench inside just talking and drinking some smoothies from Tim Hortons. We decided to go to a party that night and so I'd called my parents to see if it was okay. It hadn't been and I'd told my friends I couldn't go. They'd agreed to take me home as soon as we were done shopping. I guess knowing how bad I was with picking my friends, I should've expected that they would've dragged me to the party anyway, not caring what my parents had said._

 _I spent the majority of the night, not feeling comfortable being around so many drinkers and I was begging Cheryl Winkly not to drink which she'd paid no mind to despite being the designated driver. I'd been fuming near the end and I think someone had spiked my water with something. Despite me only taking one sip, I was still feeling nauseous and dizzy afterwards. I used this as an excuse to get them to pay attention to me. Finally Cheryl had agreed, dubbing me as an official party pooper which I wouldn't have minded if they hadn't taken a picture of me beforehand and posted it online with that caption underneath. I knew I would have to talk to my mom about my so called friends when I got home._

 _The next thing I knew, Cheryl's boyfriend who was brighter than his girlfriend any day, was begging her not to drive and honestly I was considering trying to get ride from him instead since he was clearly not drunk that night. However, Cheryl got mad at him and dumped him after he tried stealing her keys. Before I could agree with Darren and try calling my parents instead, Alaina pushed me into the back seat of the car as Cheryl got into the front and began to drive us home. I had buckled up and held on for dear life as she started playing the swerving game and it was right there and then that I wished I'd brought my cell phone with me even though it hadn't been fully charged. Then at least I could've charged it up at the party and I could've call MADD for help. I had never been more terrified in my life._

 _As Cheryl kept playing the swerving game on the empty streets and the other girls were too drunk to care for their lives, I was silently crying in the back wishing I had stayed a complete introvert instead of talking to random strangers in school and assuming they were my real friends. I could feel my heart beating faster and faster as though we were on a scary roller coaster ride going too fast for my tastes. I kept praying and praying that it would end soon; although for me probably not, because Cheryl had decided to drop me off last._

 _The giant moose came out of nowhere, running across the empty road. Kate was the other one besides me who noticed and pointed it out. It was too late though; as soon as Cheryl saw it she freaked out and tried to get around it, instead managing to roll us in the ditch and crash into a tree. The airbags deployed catching Cheryl and Kate's faces within them and I went unconscious as soon as my forehead hit the seat rest in front of me._

 _After about an hour, I came too slowly. I groaned and slowly sat up, relieved to find I hadn't really damaged anything. I looked around the interior of the car and felt a sharp pain in my throat as a halted yelp of shock almost escaped my lips. Instead it came out like more of a squeak that got cut off. Right beside me, Alaina, who hadn't been wearing her seatbelt right, had all but been half way decapitated by the belt as we'd hit the tree. The seatbelt was now embedded in her throat and I could tell right away without even taking a pulse that she'd already passed away. I felt woozy which was partly because of the concussion I'd received earlier hitting the seat in front of me._

 _Up front, speaking of which, Kate hadn't been wearing a seatbelt and was now thrown out halfway onto the hood of the car, the airbag in front of her having been popped. I slowly undid my own seatbelt with some difficulty as it had been damaged slightly and moved forward, avoiding the dent in the roof. Kate's arm was slightly back in the car and I reached forward cautiously and felt for a pulse in her wrist. There was none. I then turned to Cheryl, who's face had been caught by her air bag had had her arm twisted into an irregular angle and it had turned very purple. I closed my eyes tightly, trying not to vomit at the sight. Her neck looked like it had snapped and when I felt for a pulse on her, there too fell a non-beating heart. I began crying. Had I really been the only one who'd survived this terrible accident?_

 _I turned to the car door on my side. I was bent in, in fact the entire roof was pretty much caved in. I turned to the back window which was still fairly open and which had had its window completely smashed. I was just small enough, I could fit through. I cautiously began to crawl over the shards of glass, hoping none would go into my knees which in itself was only wishful thinking. I finally managed to get outside, purse and all. Then I began to run. I ran as far away as my shaking jelly legs would carry me. Far away from the dead girls in the car, trying to breath. Despite my vision blurring because of my light headedness, I still ran. Finally I came across a ramshackle shack in the woods realizing I'd run deeper into the forest rather than out of it. The shack looked like it was abandoned and so I ran there for shelter from the rain which was just beginning._

 _A while later, I was inside. I noticed there was a little bit of furniture laid out along the sides, just some cots and a bed. There was even a little kitchen area. I found a small safe underneath a trap door and noticing it was opened, cracked it open a bit to look inside. Inside there was an assortment of jewels and dollar bills from more than just Canada. I realized too late with feeling of dread where I actually was. The gun sounded behind me and I could feel something pierce my skin and enter my shoulder. That was all it took._

 _As I whirled around all frightened, I began to hyperventilate not believing nor able to comprehend what the hell was going on. I was scared of the men who'd just entered; I was still shaken from seeing my friends even if they weren't true, die and from the crash. I didn't know what to do as they approached my but my body seemed too._

 _It seemed as though I hadn't gotten out of the crash without injury after all. No my injuries had been internal. I was bleeding internally I realized as I fell to the ground and began coughing up blood. The men began to speak menacingly to me but I couldn't understand their words as fluid rushed to my head and began coming out of my ears. Then to top it all off because of my hyperventilation, I began to have a heart attack right then and there. The men seemed to be frightened of what was going on. I didn't even know anymore. The only thoughts I had were, I'm going to die, I'm going to die. Finally with one last heave I fell hard to the ground, my vision blurring and going black. I wavered in and out of consciousness a few times. At some point I could feel myself falling, probably down a mine shaft or something where no one would find me for quite some time. There was nothing but a ringing in my ears as I fell and soon I felt as my heart stopped beating all together._

 _And so my simple high school girl life ended in one night in a long series of events I couldn't even try to comprehend and death had taken me away._

 _The next thing I remembered was darkness. It was all I could see, all I could feel. Part of me felt paranoia the other just wanted to relax. I couldn't remember exactly how I'd gotten there in the darkness; hell I couldn't even remember my own name. It felt as though I would spent eternity there just floating without a purpose and that was only half okay with me. Then I heard something close by that made me strain to hear and listen._

 _"_ _Kira, Kira, Kira!" the voices seemed to hiss. Kira! Was that my name? No, I didn't think my name started with a K anyway. However, the name did sound familiar. Did I know someone named Kira, was this Kira family to me? I couldn't place where I'd heard it before and it really began to irritate me. Then the voices began to say something else. In fact they sounded like they were chanting some kind of poetic magic._

 _"_ _Kira's good, no he's bad, don't let him know your name young lad. Sneaky conniving human child believes the world's all cruel and vile. He seeks to make things good and right by showering us all within his light but oh so misguided is he, the end of time is nigh with thee. Take the book, play keep away, do not let Kira have his way or forever kiss away the light of day. However tragic death may be there's something that still must be; Kira must still exist within the world of rotten sin. Someone must still be thy judge, to call the wrong for all kingdom come and so we chose a little stone who used to skim the surface so until she fell through that surface to us so that we may throw her further into this world of Kira._

 _"_ _Yes in order to save this rotten world from the destruction of Kira, to stop the deaths of certain ones who weren't supposed to die, we send forth our own little piece who'll do something about it right. She shall save the world from Kira by becoming Kira before Kira ever shall. She is now to be Kira and the world shall not fall after her hand hath judged. This Kira will use her knowledge of this world and her heart to make the right call and no more shall the fate of this world be to fall. Kira be her, she shall be Kira; death hath served her well to be the Kira, the savior of us all."_

 _I was completely confused by their words but I hung on every one. Were they talking about me? Who was Kira? Had they said I was Kira? Then who was the "he" they'd mentioned? All I knew was that I didn't get a lot of time to think it over as I felt myself begin to move faster and faster. I got scared. Why was I moving so fast? Faster and faster I flew. Soon I was going so fast that I felt almost like getting sick. Eventually, it had become too much and I was spiraling down into deeper darkness as I once again lost consciousness._

 _I awoke again, this time to a sound. It was a small beeping in the distance from the dark depths of my stilled mind. It started to get annoying and I began to come to the surface. Soon, I broke through, taking a deep calm breath through my nose. Slowly but surely, I began to open my eyes. I heard voices again, this time they were louder and more defined._

 _"_ _Hey, look," called the voice of a man. "She's waking up!"_

 _"_ _Get the chief in here!" called another. I was confused as my vision came into focus and I was staring at the ceiling of the room I was now in. I slowly turned my head and saw the many instruments beside me. A hospital, I was in a hospital. There was a man who was rushing about, doing his job. I realized all of a sudden that I was very thirsty. I tried clearing my throat only to be met with chalky dryness in protest._

 _"_ _Water?" I asked weakly. I'd caught the guy's attention. He turned to look at me, seeming as though he hadn't heard me. "Water?" I asked again._

 _"_ _Oh, water!" he repeated, finally getting the message. "Of course, just wait a minute." He quickly went over to a place behind the curtain. I heard the tap running and licked my lips. He returned with the cup in hand. Before he gave it to me he asked a question. "Are you able to drink yourself?" I became puzzled with the question. Then I realized what he was getting at. Slowly, I began to work my muscles, which was slightly hard considering I'd probably been on bed rest for a time but eventually, I had my arms, hands and fingers working to my advantage. I looked back up at the man and nodded. He nodded back and handed me the cup._

 _I took the cup and began to drink from it with great vigor and lust. I downed the whole thing. I pulled the cup away finally giving a sigh of relief. I looked to the man and said, "Thank you."_

 _"_ _You're welcome," he replied. "How're you feeling today?" again I gave him a puzzle look._

 _"_ _I don't really know," I admitted. "I can't even remember how I got here." Then I thought of something important. "Does my family know where I am?" I asked anxiously. The man winced a bit with guilt. I guessed that meant no. How long had I been out?_

 _"_ _Well, the thing is…" started the man. "We don't really know where you come from yourself. After all you were found by someone in the middle of the street holding up traffic. No one had known what was going one, after all the people from the incident just said you all of a sudden appeared there and you were badly wounded. The police have theories but not many."_

 _"_ _I see," I replied, taking what he'd said into thought. I looked back up at him. "My name is Lila, Lila Ranger!" I stated. The man seemed to become shocked and confused upon my speaking my name. I didn't have time to ask him what was wrong though as two other nurses and a doctor came in._

 _"_ _Rinji, what's happened?" the elder of the three newcomers spoke up. He looked my way, noticing that I was sitting up in bed. "Ah, the patient's awake, I see."_

 _"_ _She says her name is Lila Ranger," replied the man who'd been here before. Again I was confused by the looks I received for my name. What was so weird about it? It was just a name. The elder who I'd determined to be the doctor as he was dressed differently than the other three, approached my bed and sat down. He looked at me with warm sincere eyes._

 _"_ _Ms. Ranger," he began. "I'd like to know…where about are you from?" I was confused. Hadn't they been able to determine that before by using the info in my purse? That's when everything hit me like a loaded truck of bricks. The party, the drive home, the crash, my dead friends, stumbling through the forest instead of back to the highway then my interference into some bandit's plans or something in a shack they'd made into their hideout. I'd realized I was bleeding internally and the bullet wound to my shoulder had hurt. After all of that, my hyperventilation from the utter shock of it all had proven too much for me to bear and so I began to have a heart attack and then I'd went unconscious. I'd also vaguely felt my body being thrown down a mine shaft or at least a really deep hole, perhaps an old well. I took a deep breath trying to calm myself down. Then I looked back up him and spoke in a shaky voice._

 _"_ _Um…I'm from Nasonworth, New Brunswick. That's just outside of Fredericton, the main city." As I finished I could tell they were all trying to think. The doctor furrowed his brow and took in what I'd said, trying to understand it better. I took another deep breath. "That's in Canada." the doctor and the nurses suddenly wore faces of shock. Then the doctor spoke again._

 _"_ _Lila, do you know where you are right now?" he asked._

 _"_ _The hospital in Fredericton?" I questioned sheepishly. They looked at each other._

 _"_ _Lila…you're actually in a hospital in the Kanto region of Japan. That's practically the other side of the world from where you claim to be from. Can you remember if you and your family might've come here on vacation?" I became an immediate picture of shock._

 _"_ _I'm in Japan?!" I squeaked in panic. I began shaking my head vigorously. "But how," I seemed to ask myself. "How, I don't even speak Japanese or understand it. What's going on!" I began going into another hyperventilation attack. The doctor reacted immediately in calmest way I'd ever experienced from any doctor._

 _"_ _Lila, listen to me. I know you're scared but try to calm down. Calm your breathing, like this." He began breathing at my pace but began to gradually get slower. He reached out and took my hand, stroking it gently. Eventually, I was able to start calming down a bit. Soon I was breathing regularly again. The first nurse I'd seen when I'd woken up was handing me a fresh cup of water he'd poured and I took it gratefully. As soon as I was finished my drink, the doctor proceeded with questioning me._

 _"_ _So Lila, do you know how you got all the way here in Japan?" Calm now, I slowly shook my head no then replied._

 _"_ _No, not really, I don't. I thought I had died though." The doctor continued to stroke my hand._

 _"_ _Oh and do mind me asking if you could tell me how you thought so?" he questioned. I nodded, taking a deep breath. Reliving the moments of my memories before death was not as easy as I had wanted to be. I explained everything about how Cheryl had dragged me to a party even though my parents had wanted me home, how she had prompted to drive me and the others home despite being drunk and her boyfriend's efforts. I told them how we'd avoided hitting a moose, only to crash into a tree in the ditch and when I'd waken up, one decapitated partway and the other two were dead as well. I explained how I'd run away from the car, scared and completely in shock not realizing I'd been bleeding internally until after the thieves had shot me when I'd found their hiding place. I talked about having the heart attack after and having the vague feeling of being thrown down the hole. When I'd finished, the others were staring at me in shock. I took another deep breath as I'd started crying part way through._

 _"_ _The next thing I knew," I choked. "I was waking up here and I could understand your language and you could understand me and I don't know how." I was shaking a bit but I felt confident that I wouldn't begin hyperventilating again. I closed my eyes trying to mentally chase the memories away. The doctor just patted my hand and sighed._

 _"_ _Well Lila, as incredible as your tale sounds, it's quite hard to depict what is true and what is not. However, that doesn't mean we can't try to find your parents now and tell them you're okay. We'll let you stay here a while longer, after all, your hospital bill is being covered by chief of police. Speaking of which, he will have some questions to ask of you later as how you were found is also quite extraordinary. However, promise me you won't hyperventilate like that again when the time comes." I looked into his kind and old eyes staring straight at me. All I could do was nod. One of the nurses then cleared her throat._

 _"_ _Ahem!" she started, getting everyone's attention. "Speaking of the chief of police…" she moved aside from the door and let two men walk in, two men I vaguely recognized from a memory from the back of my mind but couldn't place. "The chief is already here, along with his assistant," the nurse finished. The chief of police was definitely taller than me with graying hair and a moustache and beard which were just beginning to grow more on the sides of his face and lower chin. He stood somewhat awkwardly at first then turned to face the doctor._

 _Meanwhile, his assistant was much younger, looking to be just about in his twenties or so and a newbie fresh from training or something. He had black hair that reached down past his ears some and bangs that hung just above his eyes. He seemed a little more anxious which definitely made him look like an inexperienced puppy just learning the ropes. It was a look I knew well as I had worn it so many times before._

 _"_ _I'm not here to question her right away, I just wanted to see how she was doing," the chief stated. That voice of his, I definitely knew it from somewhere but where? The doctor stood, nodding sincerely._

 _"_ _Of course chief, take your time. Visiting hours are about to end but I don't see any problem if it's just you two right now. After all she's only just woke up" He turned to me, beaming. "I'm going to leave with the chief and his partner now. They're the ones who rescued you so don't worry, you'll be safe." He assured me. I nodded, still holding the cup of water I'd been given earlier. He took his leave with the other nurses out into the hall. The chief of police came over and sat down on my bed, making it bonce a bit when he did. His partner came in and sat on a chair by the window looking awkward._

 _"_ _So how're ya doing kid?" he asked lightly. "Are you feeling a bit better now?" I nodded, not entirely sure what to say to the stranger before. Was he a stranger? After all he looked really familiar. Maybe he just had one those faces. His friend seemed to as well. The chief chuckled._

 _"_ _I see, so you're not much of a talker, are you? That's fine. I mean you only just got up from a long recovery period. Not really much to talk about is there?"_

 _"_ _No, it's not like that," I quickly spoke up. I hated it when people got me to do that. It was annoying to hear myself as if I were trying to make them believe I wasn't the culprit behind some murder or something. Wait! I heard the bell go off in my head. I had to be sure so I quickly backtracked to introductions._

 _"_ _M-my name is…Lila, Lila Ranger," I stated shyly. As I had expected that was the chief's cue to introduce himself and his partner. He smiled warmly._

 _"_ _Well, it's nice to meet you Ms. Ranger. My name is Soichiro Yagami and this is my young partner Touta Matsuda," he said, gesturing towards Matsuda sitting in his chair who'd been reading the latest magazine. I noticed immediately who was on the front cover. It was a girl known as Misa Misa, more formally known as Misa Amane. How'd I know this? Well the answer was simple. Soichiro Yagami, Touta Matsuda, Misa Amane. I could only be in the Kanto Region of Japan where one of my favourite anime's, Death Note took place._

 _As I took that all in, I suddenly realized three things. One, I had actually died in my own world. Two, I was now the world of one of my favourite shows about mass murder, mystery and supernatural that I'd adored while alive in that world and finally three…that the world of anime I and many others had believed to be a mere fictional story, was real and I was now a part of the same world as Light Yagami; Kira!_


	2. Chapter 1 (Unitentionally?)

**_Chapter 1_**

 ** _(Deadly Beginnings)_**

I shifted at my desk once again completely bored out of my mind. The few months had been hectic and I didn't even know where to start listing off everything that had happened to me all at once. After I had spoken to Mr. Yagami, I had remained in the hospital a while longer where even though they'd tried to find my parents in this world, they'd come up short saying basically that they didn't exist. I had known the attempt would be futile after I'd realized where I was but I had to help them out otherwise they'd start getting suspicious and ask me questions where it would lead me to accidentally spilling too much.

After a tiring event of questions both from the hospital and the authorities I finally made the suggestion that perhaps I had suffered from some sort of head injury and that I couldn't remember much. Thankfully, I had still maintained some of my original injuries which included a slight concussion from my world which verified my prediction. In the current case, it was determined and I don't know how, by the police that I was without a family or a place to stay. Ultimately, they connected my accident to a plane accident that had occurred recently over Japan where many people had died. They assumed my parents had been among the casualties.

Afterwards, Mr. Yagami was kind and after talking it over with his wife and family, I was accepted as an adopted daughter into their family. I still remember the day I'd arrived. Mrs. Yagami and her daughter, Sayu were extremely happy to see me. As for the maid protagonist of the series; I had had to keep reminding myself to stay calm when I finally met Light Yagami. However, after a while of being there, I'd learned that it was only halfway point in the school year for Light and that the series hadn't even started so at least then I could take a deep breath of relief.

I'd been housed in the guest room upstairs just down the hall from Light's room and his parents. It had taken me a while to get used to things and the fact the I was in a Japan not in my world. I'd been signed up for school where I was conveniently placed in the same classroom as Light. On the first day, the teacher had moved Light from his window seat so I wouldn't have to sit by the boys who were giving me looks that made me uncomfortable. Also, since he believed being by a window would help with my brain damage.

As for the rest of what happened, it all just became a big blur. Now I was here in my new classroom, in a new country, in a new world and for the first time ever, in an actual school uniform, something that hadn't been common in Canadian schools. At first I hadn't liked the idea but after a while, it just became a part of my daily routine. The teacher stood at the front of the room teaching language arts or at least what I had dubbed language arts at Japanese school. I sighed and looked out the window, trying to let my mind wander anywhere else. Ultimately, it turned into a really bad idea.

"Miss Ranger," the teacher spoke my name sharply, jolting me out of my own world. I looked towards the front. Everyone was looking at me, except Light of course, he too was in his own little world, probably thinking about how rotten the world was. My teacher spoke again. "Please read the next passage, that is if you were actually paying attention." I groaned inwardly. In my personal opinion, teachers in Japanese high schools were a lot stricter about paying attention in class than in Canada in my world.

I stood as was custom for giving an answer in Japanese high school. I looked down at the Japanese lettering which immediately changed to English inside my mind as had become custom with everything I had read in this world. Not only was I apparently fluent in Japanese but I could read it now too. I sighed and began reading from what I thought was the right passage. When I finished, I could hear a few snickers around the room. I guess I'd done something wrong.

"Well it's nice to see you've taken an interest in the workings of Kimiko Gunta but we're reading from the next page over," said my teacher. I flinched. Yep there it was. The teacher sighed. "Miss Ranger, please turn to the next page and read from the next passage." I immediately blushed tomato red.

"Y-yes sir," I said shakily. A few more snickers echoed throughout the room. The only one who wasn't laughing at my failure to follow along was Light. He himself was not paying attention to me but I knew he was listening while thinking inside that head of his. I could almost hear the gears turning.

I read from the passage, not really comprehending what I was reading, a habit I'd picked up in my previous school when I didn't like what we were studying. This time when I was finished, I bowed quickly and sat down, heart palpitating and face red and hot. The teacher nodded in my direction.

"Thank you very much Miss Ranger," he said. Then he went back to teaching, writing a few things down on the board. I sighed, slumping down in my seat, trying not to be seen. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see Light looking right at me.

"Don't worry about it," he assured me. "You did okay." I rolled my eyes and turned front again.

"Yeah, thanks a lot!" I said sarcastically. After three months of living with the Yagami's, Light and I had become more like brother and sister than I'd thought was possible. The only plus side to the whole damned thing was the fact that he would help me with homework whenever I asked. However, I still felt uneasy around him sometimes. Maybe it was because I knew that sooner or later, he could become my enemy which once again raised the question, what would happen when he found the death note?

I couldn't help but wonder what my role in all of it was. Why was I here? Was I supposed to keep him from losing or what? Even though I had loved watching the series and the struggles between Light and L, I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of becoming a mass murder's sidekick. Finding myself thinking about it again, I shook my head and turned my head to look out the window once more. I let the teacher's voice drone on as I pondered other things completely detached from the world around me.

That's when I noticed it. Something had fallen by the window, something black. My heart almost stopped a second time. Could that have been…? No it couldn't have been. It was probably just someone being an asshole and throwing something out the window. But still…I had to be sure.

I turned around, glancing diagonally backwards at Light. Light didn't seem to have noticed. He was staring off into the distance alright like in the series but it was more towards the wall clock, not out the window. I still had to be sure. As the teacher spoke up front, I leaned back in my chair.

"Pst! Light," I whispered. Light came out of his trance, turning to me.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"Um, did you notice what that was falling outside the window?" He gave me a slightly puzzled look.

"Something falling outside the window?" he asked in his own whisper. "No, I don't know what you're talking about. I wasn't looking out the window." His story seemed genuine. However, this was Light Yagami, even before Kira his head was a dangerous weapon. I had to be careful.

"Oh," I responded. "I was just wondering because it looked kind of weird." Light shrugged turning back to his work and began taking notes again.

"Well maybe it was a bird that flew into a window or you were just imagining it." He didn't seem particularly dishonest. I allowed myself to relax for a moment. I had the feeling that he really hadn't seen anything. In that case, that was good.

"Never mind," I sighed, returning to my frontward position. "I guess I was just imaging something. Or my hair just fell across my peripheral vision. It was probably nothing." Glancing back, I noticed Light nodding and returning to writing some notes, obviously bored with just sitting around.

A little later, after the school bell had rung, I made my way down to the ground floor, near where our classroom was. I had gotten out before Light and he'd stopped off in the bathroom so that gave me some time. I took a deep breath as I approached the ground right underneath the window of our classroom. Right where it had been before when I'd been on the other side, was a moderate sized black notebook. Cautiously, I knelt down beside it, the title in chiller lettering font on the front, spelling out _Death Note_. I stared at it a while.

"Hey Lila!" I heard Light calling my name from behind me as he approached. _Oh crap!_ I thought to myself. Quickly, without thinking, I snatched up the notebook and hid it behind my back as I turned around.

"Oh hey Light," I called casually. I was really good at hiding my true emotions in certain situations. Light wore a puzzled look.

"What're you doing over here, home's that way," he jerked his thumb over towards the exit through the school gate. I nodded, agreeing.

I uh, thought I saw something over here so I came over and the I lost my earing in the grass after I tripped so I was looking for it." I thought for sure he would see through the ruse. Luckily for me, I was a practiced liar and had been ever since the time I'd taken more cookies when I shouldn't have.

"Okay, well, did you find it?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah, as you can see," I replied pointing to my dangly earring. It wasn't uncommon for my earrings to fall out, especially these ones. Sometimes the backings would go missing. Luckily, I'd become better at keeping track of them. At that, Light turned to start heading home and I sighed a sigh of relief. Then I froze, suddenly realizing what I was holding behind my back. Slowly, I brought it out. I stared down at the notebook in my hands. I had touched it. It hadn't been Light, it had be me. I had touched it and now I began to realize what that would mean.

I couldn't let Light see it. The thought about opening that can of worms was not a comforting one. So I quickly put it in my school bag which was hanging by my side from its one shoulder strap. Then I ran to catch up with Light. The faster we got home, the faster I'd be able to get my room and start preparing myself for what was to come. The visit from Ryuk, the Shinigami.

I sat in my room that night staring up at the ceiling, wondering what Ryuk would actually look like in real life. Would he look anything like the anime or completely different? Whatever it was I wasn't looking forward to it. I glanced over at my clock by my bed where I was lying and saw that it was getting close to dinnertime and I hadn't done so much as a scrap of homework. I sighed and turned back up towards the ceiling then finally slipped off the bed and went to sit in my computer chair by my desk.

I reached into my bag and pulled out the black note book. I placed it on my desk and looked down at it. I slowly opened it up to the cover where I knew the rules would be written and sure enough, there they were. I of course knew there were more to come but that Ryuk and most Shinigami didn't understand what their own books could do. As I scanned the rules, my eye caught sight of a little note on the side. It was written in another text than the rest of it. Curious I picked it up and read it.

 _In order to save this world from Kira and Kira from Kira, you must become Kira and write the names of the condemned within these pages and keep your mind open. Be careful, the game will get harder from this point forward._

I was shocked, unable to comprehend what I'd just read. Save Kira from Kira, save the world, become Kira, what did it all mean? Was that the reason I'd died before then was brought here? Was I supposed to become a mass murder myself? No, I refused to believe it. I looked at the note and kept re reading it over and over. What kind of a sick joke was this? I tried to pull myself together so I decided to turn on my mini TV I'd gotten as a present from the Yagami's. It was a bad idea. As soon as there was an image on the screen, I could tell it was a breaking news broadcast.

"The same assailant who attacked six people at a busy shopping district in Shinjuku yesterday has struck again," said the news reporter. He continued. "…Taking eight people hostage at this daycare center. His captives include both children and teachers. The police have now identified the suspect as forty two year old Kuro Otoharada, currently unemployed. We expect negotiations to begin immediately."

My heart almost stopped at the realization. That was the name of the name of the man who'd been Light Yagami's or rather Kira's first kill in the series. But now I had the death note, it was my call whether or not this man would have to die or not. No, no, no! I shook the thought from my head. What right did I have to judge the wicked? That was supposed to be God's job right? Then again, I was in a completely different world where usually Gods of death made the call. I wasn't exactly sure what other entities might arise here. I shook my head again and decided to just sit back and watch how things would unfold.

"You can't help but feel concerned for the safety of those hostages," came the voice of the anchor woman from the television. The scree flicked back to the news reporter.

"You're absolutely right," he agreed. "We'll continue to monitor the situation from here." The screen flickered back to image of the young news anchor sitting behind her desk.

"Thank you for that report." she replied to the man. Then she proceeded to ask a question of her partner. "What do you make of this Mr. Hashimoto?"

"Well one can only hope for a quick resolution to this situation," the man replied. Then the two continued chatting for a while, eventually changing the subject to other news. However, I could hardly rest easy. I had no idea what this man could do to those poor children and their teachers. If he killed the teachers, the kids would be mentally scarred for life from the bloodshed and the same would go for he killed an innocent child. I just hoped everything was alright. I decided to keep the TV turned on for any possible updates while I began doing my homework.

I started with history since I seemed better at that than at math. I'd have to ask Light for help with it later since he'd become my personal tutor since starting school. Not that I'd been too terribly bad at math but here in Japan, it seemed a lot harder than what we were saddled with in an average Canadian school. Japan always had to have the smartest people didn't they? I was called down for dinner during which I couldn't stop thinking about the news story. Once I got back to my room, I began doing the readings from our textbook, skimming over the non-important parts while the television just became background noise. Despite my best efforts thought to remain focused, my eyes kept being drawn to the black notebook on my desk. Would I allow myself to be tempted? Was I really that weak minded? I couldn't bring myself to kill anyone yet my hand was itching to write just one name down and test it out. I already knew so many names from the series that would try to get in Kira's way but could I really bring myself to be that black hearted. I even knew the name of the detective who would get in Kira's way and all I'd to do to find that out was go online and look it up in my world. However, I'd hated it just the same when he'd died. I just couldn't decide. Then all of a sudden the new story changed back to the one I'd tuned in on in the first place.

"Breaking news," came the voice of the anchor woman. "We've just got a new development on the daycare hostage story. We now take you live to our reporter on the scene."

"Thanks," responded the reporter. "It now seems as though negotiations didn't go so well between our police force and the assailant. He's now hold a young boy hostage, threatening to shoot if the police make one move and it seems our forces can't because the boy is in the way of any shots they could take. This could really end badly after all. Wait, the assailant is coming out now!"

I watched as on the other side of the screen, the man whose picture had been shown to the public earlier came out with not just one hostage like the reporter had said but with two, one boy and one girl. They looked like they were on the verge of crying and honestly I couldn't blame them. The guy who was pulling their strings looked pretty scary. The poor thing's hands were bound by strong looking ropes and one of them was bleeding from the head and the nose. That bastard must've hit him. The man spoke up with a sneer playing across his features.

"Hah, what're you idiots going to do know?" he asked smugly. The police forces shifted. "Heh, go ahead and shoot officers but if you do these pretty little faces will be joining me as well and we wouldn't want that now would we especially not with the cameras watching so I suggest you rethink your tactics." The head of the police gave looks amongst themselves then backed up some to allow them to pass. As soon as they were through the barrier however, one of the cops had become trigger happy and made the first shot. It hit the man in the shoulder causing him to call out in pain. The rest of the forces saw this as their opportunity to move in. However the man had already recovered.

"You idiots, you shouldn't have done that. Now I'll make it even he said as he pulled his own gun and shot the poor boy beside him in the shoulder where he himself had been shot. The kid started balling and going into hysteria. The man picked him up and began to drag him once again. Because of his rash action the police were backing away now that they'd seen he was serious. The criminal had forgotten to grab the girl though and now she was running at him and she bit into his hand.

The man cried out again and he looked down at the girl with a rage in his eyes. The girl was looking back up at him with anger in her eyes as well accompanied with tears. The man used the butt of the gun to bash her head and make her let go. Then he was pointing the gun at her face.

"You brat!" he bellowed in rage. "You're too much trouble so it's time to go to sleep!" Someone from the crowd screamed "No, don't do it!" Meanwhile I was in a panic. There was only one way to save the girl and so my hand was flying across the paper in an instant out of fear for her life. As soon as I was done, I wrote _"_ _Immediate heart attack"_ next to the name. The moment my hand had left the page, the effects were instantaneous. The man known as Kuro Otoharada immediately seized up. As his body shook, he clutched his chest, eyes widening in fear. He let out a yell of pain as his other hand dropped the gun on the ground. Still clutching his chest, he struggled to breathe but to no avail. After a while, he finally collapsed dead on the ground. There was a long pause as everyone tried to comprehend what had just happened.

I collapsed in my chair, unable to stand as the sudden realization hit me. I was in a cold sweat trying to figure things out. I had just killed someone, using the notebook. I had killed and what was more, I had killed the same first man Kira had originally killed. Things weren't looking good especially with the note I'd read earlier. Suddenly the news was an explosion of excitement.

"What just happened?" asked the news anchor. The news reporter turned his face towards the camera again as the police went to apprehend the dead man and their comrades went to rescue the other hostages from inside the daycare.

"I'm not entirely sure how to explain it but it seems that the man who was about to shoot the innocent girl has collapsed and died of a sudden heart attack. The police are now moving in to the daycare to rescue the other hostages and the others are taking care of the body and the little boy who was shot in the shoulder along with the little girl. In all honesty I can't say this is just mere coincidence since it happened just as the girl was about to be sacrificed. You could say that this could indeed have been an act of god!"

 _No,_ I thought to myself. _Please don' call me a god_. I leaned back in my chair trying to calm myself down and rubbing my temples. I breathed in and out and in and out. I sighed letting my breath. Then I heard a knock on my door. Quickly, snapping out of it, I grabbed the notebook again and stuffed it into my book bag.

"Come in," I called. The door opened to reveal Sayu Yagami standing in the door frame.

"Oh good you have been watching," she said indicating the commotion coming from my television. "I just wanted to know if you just saw the same news story I did about the captives at the day care," she confirmed.

"Yeah, I saw it," I said shaking a little. "So what do you think about it?" I asked trying to keep up the conversation.

"I thought it was crazy. The guy shot a boy in the shoulder and they still continued broadcasting through the whole thing. I thought for sure they'd cut us off. Then the guy dropped dead when he pointed his gun at that girl's face. Really crazy!" she exclaimed. Apparently she was very excited and surprised by what had happened. It made me feel like I had a knot in my stomach as I realized she'd watched me kill my first victim. My only victim I reminded myself. Just then Light opened his door down the hall and stepped out.

"What's going on?" he asked. "Why are you making so much noise Sayu?" Sayu turned to her brother.

"Hey Light, you usually watch the new right? Did you see what happened with the whole daycare hostage thing?" she asked excitedly. Light paused for a moment the turned back towards his room.

"Yeah I saw it. Pretty crazy stuff happening. It was like he was attacked by some mysterious force when he threatened that kid."

"Yeah, that's right. Man that was like the craziest part!" she exclaimed again. As Light went back into his room, I came out of mine. Then Mrs. Yagami's voice rang up the staircase.

"Light don't you have night cram school tonight?" she called up. Light responded from his opened door.

"Yeah, I'm getting ready now." he replied. A few minutes later, he came out with his coat on and his school bag in hand. That was when I remembered something.

"Hey Light," I started. He turned to look at me. "Do you mind if I come with you. I just remembered I have to pick something up for myself from the nearby convenience store."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "It's dangerous out at night and you could get jumped with all of the criminal activity that's been occurring lately. Can't you just wait until morning?"

"No," I protested. "I'd rather get it tonight. If you're that worried about me getting jumped then I'll just wait for your class to end and we can go together on the way home." Light stopped and thought a moment. Then he finally shrugged.

"Fine by me. Just tell mom you're coming with me." I nodded in response then ran into my own room and picked up my backpack, the one I usually wore casually. I transferred my purse into it and put the death note in it as well. I wasn't entirely sure I was going to use it again but if the time came, I'd definitely have to decide under pressure.

As we left the house and began to walk towards Light's night school, the thought egged at me, tearing at me from the inside. Would I really kill those perverts or would I be able to do something else? Could I really take another human's life? I couldn't decide. We finally arrived at the building and I ended up waiting outside in the lobby part of the building for Light to finish. When he was finally done, we began heading towards the convenience store I'd talked about earlier. Sure enough as we approached, I could see the perverts beginning to diverge on the poor helpless woman. We entered the store.

"So what exactly do you need from here?" he asked looking around trying to figure out my motives.

"Not sure," I admitted. "I'll just know when I see it, okay." I began looking around; up and down the isle's looking for something important. Meanwhile Light had gone near the front of the store and had begun flipping through some pages of some magazines. All the while, as I shifted around, I kept a watchful eye on the front window and the men trying to touch the woman. She was backing up now. I made my way back to the front then and my eye passed over some hair spray in the cosmetics isle. I thought to myself. I picked it up. It wasn't as effective as pepper spray but it'd be effective enough.

I made my way to the front of the store and purchased the hairspray as well as some candy bars and a comic book. Light saw me with my bag of goodies and followed me outside where the men had started trying to pants the woman. She struggled, trying to get free. I bent down, picking up a rock and as she finally made her way towards the crosswalk, I threw the stone and it hit he guy square in the side of the face. Light looked at me in utter shock and with a look that asked, _"_ _What the hell are you doing?"_ the man and his men turned to me.

"Leave her alone you damned bastard!" I shouted at him. The men looked at one another and then started chuckling evilly. Meanwhile, the woman who'd been running away was now frozen on the other side of the street and watching what was happening. The leader who'd been giving the orders stepped forward.

"That really hurt you bitch!" he sneered. "Now our new friend has run away. Oh well, I guess you'll make a fine substitute." He took another step, I was ready for him. However, I wasn't entirely prepared for what happened next. Light stepped in between the two of us. I could tell he was scared but Light wasn't one to lose his cool in a tight situation.

"I'd seriously reconsider that if I were you," he said, glaring daggers at the man. The man didn't seem intimidated.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the man sneered. "But I don't remember saying that I was taking orders from a brat like you. Move along kid or get yourself hurt, your choice." His men snickered beside him. They'd moved into an effective circle around us.

"What are you doing?" I hissed at Light.

"What am doing, what are you doing?" he retorted. "These men are dangerous. You shouldn't have gotten involved."

"Oh and just let them rape that poor woman. I don't think so," I hissed back. One of the men nearby spoke up.

"Hey, what're you two talking about? You shouldn't keep secrets from us," he chided, grinning ear to ear. The men were moving in.

"What I think boys is that we should take her as a replacement," stated the leader, "And teach this son of a bitch a lesson." He sneered. I glared daggers of hatred towards him. If I wanted to I couldn't use the death note here in front of all of these witnesses, not that I did want to anyway. I wanted to avoid using it all costs. The men began to converge. Light tensed next to me. Clearly he'd never gotten into a fight before but now, there was no way out of it in his eyes. Light was a smart guy but he wasn't some kickass body builder or karate expert. That'd been why I'd intervened because I knew I could take them. I stepped back a bit, reaching into my grocery bag.

"Here's an idea," I almost growled back at them. My voice had become calm, relaxed, almost deadly which was exactly the opposite of how I really felt. "Why don't you teach yourself!" I yelled throwing my bag on the ground and coming out with the hairspray and uncapping it just as one of the guys charged us. Immediately I sprayed it into his face and he jumped back screaming with his hands over his eyes.

"You little bitch!" shouted another. He came at me as did all of the others. I readied myself in a horse stance while handing the canister back to Light.

"Here," I said. "You might need this." Light took the hairspray, completely dumbfounded at first as I sidestepped the incoming tank of a man. And with that adrenaline and instinct took over my body. I was moving about, throwing punches and kicks and quickly dodging oncoming attacks like a freaking martial artist from the movies. Meanwhile, Light observed me, trying to follow my lead by only dodging and blocking blows from the other guys while using the hairspray effectively blinding them. The next man who came my way, I side stepped slightly, grabbing hold of his shoulder and bringing him down forcefully, stomach first upon my knee.

All of a sudden a guy came up from behind, pushing me down into the ground after I'd let my guard down accidentally for an instant. Meanwhile, Light was trying to fend off another guy, looking my way.

"Lila!" he exclaimed in shock. Despite me being on the ground, I had also gained a new advantage as the man came to step over me, beginning to bend over to choke me. I let my leg come up and shinned him in the groin. Immediately, he'd collapsed overtop of me and I was able to get up immediately turning to send a punch into the leader's face as he came at me. He reeled back but before he could come at me again, I came up to him and pushed him down while he was off balance. Then remembering something I'd learned from somewhere in my past, I clapped my hands over his ears as he was getting back up. Just like I'd expected, he crumpled again, his central gyroscope off balance and fell unconscious at my feet from the two blows I'd dealt him. Quickly I turned to see Light elbowing the last guy of his in the back with such a force that it sent him flying into the pavement, probably chipping a few teeth in process.

As we both stood up, we saw the results of the battle. All of the men were either trying to stand up again without much success, while some were just unconscious on the ground. Both of us were breathing heavily. Light bent over trying to catch his breath and I could see he'd gotten clipped somewhere because he was bleeding from the head. I looked down at myself to see if I'd sustained any damage. There were only cuts, scraped and bruises here and there but otherwise unscathed.

"So, you wanna tell me…just what the hell was all that?" Light asked panting. He reached up his hand to wipe away the sweat from his brow. I looked around seeing there had been a small crowd that had gathered and I could hear sirens in the distance. Clearly the store clerk had called the police.

"What're you talking about?" I asked faking innocence. "We just beat the crap out of some perverts who were trying to take advantage of not just an innocent woman but me too. I think we can chalk it up to a win against villainy." I gave a half-hearted grin. Light sighed.

"Whatever you say," he replied. He stood up and walked over to me, handing me back my hairspray. "How'd you know we were going to need this anyway?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked still panting.

"I mean, you came with me tonight and we ended up at the convenience store you wanted to come to for something important you just couldn't wait for until tomorrow. The next I know you're getting involved with a bunch of thugs and you bought a can of hairspray to use against them. So how'd you know?" My heart raced inside my chest. How was I supposed to tell him? How could I when it could mean he'd steal the death note from me and begin his work as Kira? I couldn't, that was the answer.

"What do you mean how did I know?" I scoffed. "I just noticed that those guys were starting to gang up on a poor defenseless woman and I saw an opportunity to save her. In all honesty, I just wanted to get out of the house tonight to clear my head from all of that stupid homework our history teacher gave us. Besides, when was the last time you just wanted let your troubles slide away and relax a little, I mean you work extra hard as it is. Even with your talent and intellect, you're still just a kid like me." Light stopped and thought for a moment.

"Okay, so you just made up an excuse to come with me so you wouldn't be trapped?" he repeated. I nodded as he thought on it. "Then how come you didn't just tell me?" I thought of a comeback and after three seconds it came.

"Well I knew you'd probably tell me to stay home and I knew if I complained enough of how important it was to me you'd have to let me come. Honestly I thought it'd take more convincing than that. But anyway, if I hadn't done that don't you think Sayu would've wanted to come along to and add to our troubles?"

"I suppose so," Light sighed. He bent down and picked up the bag I'd dropped earlier and handed it to me. "I take it you bought more than just the hairspray?" he quizzed.

"Just some candy is all," I admitted then added, "Oh and a comic book too." Light shook his head and picked up his back he'd been forced to drop earlier. Just then as we were ready to leave, the first cop car arrived and skidded to a halt by the front of the store. From the driver's side stepped out Soichiro Yagami. He approached as soon as he noticed us.

"Light, Lila, what are you two doing here?" he asked, coming up. His companions were arriving now as well.

"Dad," Light exclaimed. "We were just shopping for Lila's convenience." Soichiro looked around and noticed the blood coming from Light's forehead.

"Just shopping, huh?" he asked skeptically. He turned to me and I felt as I always did whenever my own father had caught me doing something I shouldn't

"Yes sir," I replied. Then we noticed these thugs harassing a poor defenseless woman and so on our way out, I threw a stone at one of them and the fight sort of just escalated from there." The other policemen were now helping pick up the men on the sidewalk. Mr. Yagami sighed.

"And do you have any proof of this?" he asked. Light and I looked at each other, unsure of how to prove ourselves. Then a small voice came from behind us.

"It's true," said the voice. We turned to see the same woman who'd been attacked before approaching us all cautiously. "I'm the one who was being harassed and then this young lady and her friend came to my rescue and stopped them from coming after me," she finished. The poor thing was shaking like a leaf.

"Yeah that's right," said the store clerk coming outside. "I saw it with my own eyes. This girl here used the hairspray she'd bought to blind one of them after he attacked. Then this young man helped." More of our eye witnesses started coming forth telling the chief everything they'd seen. Mr. Yagami sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in thought.

"Well then, in that case," he started. "You men," he pointed at some of the officers. "Take these men into custody and bring them down to the station for questioning."

"Yes sir, chief Yagami sir!" came the reply. Then Soichiro turned to us.

"As for you two, how about coming with me to help finish the report and then I'll drive you home. It's been a long day after all," he stated. We nodded then headed over to the chief's car. As the other men were put into separate cars, we got into our own and were driven down to the station. After a long while of questioning and a call home to assure Mrs. Yagami was alright, we were let go and had a silent car ride home.

As we entered the door, Sayu came running at us both full throttle and jumped us with a hug.

"Ouch, Sayu, that hurts," complained Light as he winced. She pulled back and gave us a scolding look.

"Well good!" she snapped. "You two almost got yourselves killed!"

"What're you talking about?" I asked. "We had all under control.

"Then why are you both bruised and battered?"

"Because no one gets out of any combat unscathed!" I growled back. "Besides it's not like they pulled any knives on us or anything."

"You don't need to worry Sayu," Light said. "We're home now and that's all that matters. Can we just drop it and get some sleep? We have to get an early start tomorrow." Sayu backed up as Light brushed past her to head upstairs. He yawned on his way up and said goodnight to his mom who was standing in the hallway. As we heard his door click shut, Mrs. Yagami turned to us.

"Your brother has a point Sayu," she stated. "You should go on up to bed now too, it's late."

"Fine," sighed Sayu as she headed upstairs to her own room. Mrs. Yagami then turned to her husband.

"They didn't do too much damage did they?" she asked concerned. Mr. Yagami shook his head.

"No, just some well-placed hits and a can of hairspray to the eyes were the only cause for any injury and they were minor at that. However, we're probably going to have to question the culprits further tomorrow along with the one they harassed." Mrs. Yagami nodded. I still remained in the doorway. She turned to me and smiled.

"You should probably go and get some shut eye too Lila," she suggested. "You do still have school tomorrow and you don't want to sleep in again."

"Heh, yeah," I agreed sheepishly, remembering the last time I'd slept in causing her to have to drive me on her way into town for groceries. I'd gotten a big scolding from my teacher that day and honestly I could go without a repeat. So instead of wasting time, I took my bag of things I'd gotten at the convenience store upstairs with me to my room.

I threw myself down on the bed and raised my right hand above my head, gazing at it blankly. To think that today with this very hand I had silenced a deadly assailant and had used it many times to knock some jerk's heads in. I now possessed a power that was beyond the comprehension of this world, a power that I didn't like the idea of having. Why had Ryuk found it of interest to drop something so dangerous upon humanity's doorstep? Why was I the one who now held the power? I had to admit it was better than having had Light have the power. He'd become corrupted by it after the first two people he'd killed in the original series. I guessed it was like throwing a pebble into the calm waters of a pond. Once it struck the surface and began to sink in it did two things. First it made ripples upon impact and then it sank to the bottom to become one with the pond. I sighed, turning on my side on the bed to look out my window.

Why was I here? Why was I the one with knowledge of this world from the outside? Why did I have the death note? Honestly, I was starting to get worried about it all. How would things turn out now? I sat up and went over to my dresser where I pulled out a pair of fresh pajamas from the third drawer. After I had gotten dressed, I put my hair up into a scrunchy. Then I sat on my bed again, flicking on my lamp on my bedside table. I pulled out the death note and turned it to the first page where I'd written Kuro's name. I stared at it blankly. Had he been scared when his heart had seized up? Had he had a good reason for acting the way he did? Perhaps there could've been abuse in his life to lead him to this. Either way, he hadn't been right to shoo that boy, threaten that girl or the rest of the daycare. It made me sick to think someone could be so cruel but then was I so different? I had taken the man's life after all. I just couldn't make sense of it.

I kept staring at the name until something else had caught my eye. A stray slip of paper hanging near the edge where the rules had been. I picked it up and read what was on it.

 _Congratulations, you've committed your first murder_

I gulped at that and started shaking.

 _You seem to be off to a good start. However, you'll have to kill more than just on person in order to save this world from Kira and Kira from Kira. You are the new Kira and now it's up to you to kill off as many criminals as you can without getting caught. However, you know the people Kira killed who weren't condemned and you know that not all criminals are worthy of death. So please, be careful and don't allow those who don't need to, to die. Keep up the good work._

I continued to stare at the tiny note. Great now I was being patted on the back by someone I didn't know for killing someone who was condemned. What the hell did that mean? I had serious doubts that whoever or whatever this was, it wasn't human or a Shinigami. I placed the notebook back into my bag along with my other school things for tomorrow. I turned off my lamp and crawled into bed underneath the covers. It occurred to me that I hadn't really brushed my teeth but I was too tired to care. I'd just do it in the morning after breakfast or something.

I settled down, slowly allowing my eyes to close. I wondered as I drifted off when Ryuk would come to visit me and what he'd actually look like. This would be my first time seeing an actual Shinigami up close and personal in real life. He definitely wouldn't be animated. After all, nobody else had. Eventually after a long time of worrying about it all I finally drifted off into a deep sleep.

When I awoke I was floating in the air. It was slightly chilly and I couldn't tell where I was. I started freaking out when I finally decided that this had to be a dream. I floated around for what seemed to me to be hours. All the while I heard whispers coming from everywhere from several different voices. I spoke up hoping this wouldn't be a dream where I was unable to use my voice.

"Hello," my voice echoed silencing the whispers for only a second before they continued. "Where am I? Is anybody out there who could tell me what I'm doing here?" I looked around for anyone, anything that could give me a hint. Then all of a sudden a cool and calm voice came from somewhere.

"Why my friend, isn't it obvious?" asked the voice. "You're not anywhere at all really and yet…you're everywhere at the same time." This confused me.

"I beg your pardon," I said.

"You're pardoned," replied the voice. Shaking my head I continued.

"I don't really understand what you're trying to say."

"Oh but that's not entirely true," commented the voice. "You do know what I'm saying; you just don't understand what lies behind the words that I'm using."

"Huh?" I still didn't get it. The voice sighed. Then I caught a glimpse of something forming in the distance. It looked like the body of an oddly striped cat. First his head appeared with a wide grinning smile with incisors that looked sharper than I'd ever seen any before.

"Humans can be so slow," the cat commented. "That's why I usually prefer working with other cats or sometimes foxes. We seem to have so much more in common and yet I'm glad I work with humans because they're fun to mess around with sometimes, turning their minds inside out and so on. But anyways, what I'm trying to say is that while you do not understand my words intentions, you can still understand them for they are being spoken in your tongue."

"Woah," I commented, completely ignoring his explanation. I slowly raised a finger towards him. "So um, does that mean, you're like the Cheshire cat or something like from Alice in Wonderland?" The cat just chuckled.

"What do you mean by like Alice in Wonderland?" he questioned while curling his tail. "I'm the same cat that you've read about, heard about, seen on your television screen. I take on many different appearances so as to fool the viewers or readers about my true existence and purpose. In fact, I'm not really a cat; it's just my favourite face to wear. More to the point, I could be anything you wanted me to be but my true form for technically my true is actually nothing and everything; something no one understands and yet they do." The cat before me continued grinning. I sighed.

"You're not gonna tell me the same spiel that that "truth" entity told the Elric brothers from Full Metal Alchemist are you because that's not really original."

"Aww," moaned the cat sarcastically. "And I thought I did such a good job with that too. I guess I'll have to come up with something different then."

"Wait," I said snapping to attention. "You mean you're truth from that storyline too?" I asked incredulously. The cat grinned wider.

"You could say that," he replied. "After all I just told you I have many different forms and that little guy is one of them. I simply become a reflection of anyone dumb enough to open the portal of truth and seek out the forbidden knowledge. I mean couldn't you tell from looking. Our smiles are the same." He grinned again and I could see the resemblance.

"Yeah, can't argue there," I replied. "But wait, does this mean you watch over more than one world at a time?"

"Indeed. I watched over yours before your untimely death. Then your body was sent to me when those men threw you down that hole and I decided to bring you back and throw you into a new world."

"So does that mean that you're responsible for sending me to the world of death note?" I asked. Then a realization hit me. "Wait if that's true then doesn't that mean that you're the one sending me those notes telling me I should become Kira?! It is true isn't it?" The cat just continued grinning.

"That's right," he replied. "I'm the one who put you in this new world. I'm the one who told you to become Kira in order to save Kira and the world from Kira. Now let me guess, you want to know why?" I remained silent as I glared at the darn thing in front of me. _"_ _Hell yeah I want to know why!"_ My inner thoughts screamed. _"_ _I'm not comfortable with being a mass murder!"_

"My, my; such a temper," the cat chided. "I'd be careful of that if I were you. Also, I believe you misunderstand. See, I brought you into this world for a reason and whether or not you're comfortable being a mass murderer is not my concern. I just gave you a job and you should be thrilled to be able to do it. You're saving this world after all."

"By killing people in cold blood!" I screamed. I was angry at this damned cat already and a little bit sick to the stomach. In a flash the cat was gone from my sight and I could feel myself being squeezed with my arms being stuck by my sides and my midsection being tight. The Cheshire had transformed some and although he maintained his cat like appearance, his entire body was now coiled around mine like a snake's. His face came into my field of vision and he continued grinning slyly at me.

"Now didn't I say you'd better watch your temper?" he sneered. I tried struggling to get free but every time I tried, I felt like my energy was plummeting and I got tired and even more tired. Finally it was all I could do to keep my head up and my eyes open.

"You see, this is another reason why I like working with humans," the cat jeered. "Their energy tastes delicious and when they're not in their bodies they taste even more so. However, I can't simply drain you all the way, you're too important to me for that my pretty. Now, you're going to listen carefully to what I'm about to say." He paused to make sure I was paying attention. Even though I wanted to be, I couldn't bother to feel angry at the cat because of how drained I was. Had he said something about eating some of my energy? Who cared? I just decided to sit tight and listen to what he had to say.

"Good, now that you're not fighting me, I believe I shall tell you why I chose you to become Kira instead of Mr. Yagami," he continued. "First of all, you do know how the story of "Death Note", as you call it in your world ends don't you?" I gave a weak nod. "Good. Now here's the deal. I have seen the outcome of that scenario and it's not really pleasant. You see, a few years after Mr. Yagami's death, there is going to arise an organization of scientists bent on finding the gateway into the realm of the Shinigami. You might not know this but once a live human passes into that realm one of two things happens. A, they either become Shinigami themselves or B…they become necromancers; beings even greater than Shinigami.

"What do mean by necromancer?" I asked tiredly.

"Well, I know for a fact that you've seen a certain anime in your world called "Is it a Zombie", a show about a cross dressing zombie who takes up three different girls in his home. One of those girls was a necromancer and she had power over others and reality with just her words. Well here, it's the same basic principal only more controlled. Now can you imagine what would happen if a power like that was let loose upon any other world?"

"I guess it would be pretty disastrous," I commented. The Cheshire nodded.

"Right. That's why I've brought you here. You're character and personality is enough to keep you from going overboard with being Kira. You know what it's like to die and you know what it's like to be trapped in the abyss afterwards and so you won't let your killing get out of hand. In order to save this world from Kira, to save Kira from himself, I had to throw in a pebble that would become the new Kira and shake things up a bit. Also, your knowledge of how this world is supposed to turn out might help guide you along the way. That's why I put you in about a year ago."

"So basically, you want me to stop this organization from becoming necromancers after they make it into the Shinigami world by playing the role of Kira?" I inquired. The cat nodded, still holding me in its vice grip. "But if I'm Kira and these so called scientists build off of the Kira event and learn of the death note…then how will I change anything if Kira's the one who starts all of this? Wouldn't it make more sense to just stop Kira completely?"

"My dear pet," the cat purred. "You cannot simply throw a stone into a pool of calm water and expect it to make big enough ripples to become waves. Only ripples will come from the point of impact and naturally flow outward. In other I cannot stop the actions of everyone who would therefore bring about Kira's existence for it's always been evident that sooner or later at least one Shinigami would drop a death note upon the world and someone like yourself or Light Yagami would pick it up. I cannot stop that change.

"So in order to make it work, I need to make someone else Kira, someone who knows death, someone who can kill with a conscious, someone who can think things through and make the appropriate changes necessary to make change in the world. Plus now that I've thrown you in at that certain point, I cannot simply remove you, you've already been fused with this world; already have become one with the pond. I'd do more damage." He paused for a few moments waiting for my response. However, since he'd sapped me of most of my energy, I couldn't even open my eyes anymore.

"Oh sorry," he said suddenly realized. "I guess I took more of your energy than I'd originally thought but don't worry, you'll get it back. Anyways, if you understand what I'm trying to say here then good for you, if not well…good luck with that. Initially, since you're the one who's being Kira, I believe that Light Yagami will be forged in a different way as he goes through his next few years. The main idea behind this is to keep him alive in the end and keep him humble at heart. I'm sure your knowledge of this world will allow you to achieve that.

"There then, that's all I can say to you for now my pet," he remarked. He uncurled me and allowed me to float peacefully away from him. I was feeling the fatigue now and I could barely move. "I'll be seeing you shortly to let you know how you're doing. Oh and remember this…you are Kira now and so…what happens next is entirely up to you although I doubt that you'll go against what I've already told you." He chuckled as I floated away and then his chuckles became fits of laughter combined with wheezing. I thought to myself then decided that he was probably right.

Some part of me knew that I'd try to save the world from calamity now that I had a good excuse. The other part was wondering if I had completely lost my mind. With everything that'd happened so far…why not?


	3. Chapter 2 (Good Day Mr Shinigami)

**_Chapter 2_**

 ** _(Good Day Mr. Shinigami)_**

I wasn't able to go to school the next day. Thanks to that damned cat sapping me of my energy, I came down with a flash fever that lasted all day and into the evening. On the bright side of things, it gave me an excellent excuse to catch up on the homework I hadn't finished the other day. And I also was able to begin my job as Kira without any interruptions because Mrs. Yagami had gone out for the day.

Despite the fact that I was still against becoming a murder, I had had another dream that morning when I'd dozed off again. I'd been floating in space and watching the earth from afar as the so called Necromancers the cat had mentioned created chaos. Then one of the Necromancer's had grown bigger than the earth and had sat right across from me on the other side. Grinning he spoke one word and I was instantly writhing in pain unable to breathe or to do anything. The next thing I knew I was on the floor of my bedroom with the covers tangled all around me in one great mess. Because of that incident, Mrs. Yagami had almost stayed home. I'd managed to convince her otherwise.

I had sat at my desk whenever I wasn't feeling so light headed and I would watch the television for any news reports of criminals who'd been seemingly condemned. The hard part was verifying whether or not they should have their names written on the pages of the death note. I was watching news stories from all over the globe on the internet too, my laptop on my lap whenever I was lying down in bed. Luckily for me, I could understand almost every human language I listened to in the reports. Perhaps it was because I was supposed to be able to kill world-wide.

Despite the fact that most of my strikes were happening on a large scale, I still felt that sooner or later the world's police forces would join together in a meeting to determine whether or not I was a mass murder or some other force of nature was occurring. Then soon enough, L. Lawliet the world's greatest detective would begin his own search to try and find me.

After the first day of carefully collaborating with the television and the internet, I ended up back in school at my desk. In order to make my killings more effective and unnoticeable, I had decided to start using the death note at school. Once I caught wind of a criminal who was being executed of one who'd committed such a heinous crime he or she would eventually end up in hell either way, I would pretend I was writing a story about these so called characters with their full names in my other notebook which I usually wrote in to create works of creative fiction. Then later, when I had free time like in the bathroom or during lunch when no one was around, I would write those names neatly into the death note, silently apologizing for taking their lives even though I knew I could never be forgiven.

Even though I was killing off criminals, it was like I was hurting myself in the process. After all, I knew what it was like. I knew what it was like to all of a sudden find oneself on death row. Sometimes when I wrote a name I would end up crying silent tears for the person I'd went and offed. By the third day the note book had had three full pages written upon. They were names from many different places in the world and only names of criminals who'd been sentenced to death. I had also killed other murderers and assassins. I based my morals off of my own Christian belief at first but then decided I was now unworthy to be considered a follower of god in any world. Then I based them off the concept of equivalent exchange like from my other favourite anime Full Metal Alchemist, a life for a life and so on. The only problem was I was like the philosopher's stone, bypassing those rules as I took more lives myself.

Finally, by the end of the week, I had at least five and a half pages filled. I came into my room one evening holding the death note in my hands and simply observing it. I could hardly believe how many lives I'd taken. It felt both like an accomplishment and a failure. I sighed as I sat down on my chair at my desk. I opened the death note to look at the pages one more time as if I needed confirmation that I'd done it, that I'd been the one to write down these names in this accursed book, that it was my writing. Seeing the many names made me sick to my stomach.

"You've taken quite a liking to it!" said a gruff voice from behind me. My heart nearly leapt out of my chest as I whirled around yelping in surprise as the lightning and thunder sounded outside and I fell down against my desk. My chair had been pushed away from me and I'd hit my head. I reached up behind to hold the injury, wincing as my hand touched it again.

"Ouch!" I groaned. Then I looked up. Standing right near my bed was a tall humanoid form. His skin was light gray with some bluish tints and he had stick up straight spiky black hair. His limbs were abnormally long and somewhat twisted and they were covered by dark black attire with a fuzzy collar. His mouth seemed twisted with teeth that were yellow, rotting and jagged and his lips were an unnerving blue like someone caught in a snow storm and freezing to death. The most noticeable of his features were his large yellow eyes that stared straight at me with red irises in the middle. And even though I couldn't see them, I knew he had long black scraggly feathered wings which he could retract when not flying. In all honest I had almost forgotten that he was supposed to make an appearance before long before the one who had his death note. It was Ryuk the Shinigami aka the god of death and it looked like he'd found me.

"No reason to act surprised," he continued as I hadn't found my voice yet. "I am the Shinigami Ryuk. That used to be my notebook." He paused. "Judging by your struggle to comprehend what you're doing, you've already figured out that what you have is no ordinary notebook." He finished, still wearing his jagged tooth grin. It was unnerving, especially seeing it in person.

"Uh huh," I nodded, standing up and using my desk to support me. I rolled my chair back to where I was and sat down not knowing if I was able to continue standing. I took a deep breath.

"I know this might be disconcerting for you but the truth of the matter is I was going to come down sooner or later to find my notebook." He said matter of factly.

"No, I know," I stated, catching my breath and a second wind as I calmed myself down. Ryuk cocked an eyebrow in amusement.

"Eh?" he questioned. I took a deep breath and sighed.

"I mean, I knew you were going to come down sooner or later and we'd meet," I admitted sheepishly. "I just forgot when or how long it would take you to get here and then despite all of that time mentally preparing myself was all for naught because you still managed to spook me." Once again the Shinigami seemed curious of my words.

"Excuse me," he said. "Correct me if I'm wrong but did you say you forgot when I would be coming? I'm not sure about you but we've never met before."

"Maybe not," I replied. "But I have seen you before; from the other side of the scree that is."

"Sorry but I don't follow," said the Shinigami completely lost. I sighed again and rubbed the back of my neck thinking it over. Finally I decided that I'd have to tell him.

"Okay, if you want to hear the whole story, I suggest you sit tight and listen because I don't want to have to repeat myself." I stated. Then I remembered something. I reached into my school bag and pulled out something roundish and red. "Here," I said, holding out the apple. "You can have this while you listen." Ryuk's reaction was almost instantaneous.

"Oooo, an apple, really?" he asked excitedly. "How'd you know I love apples?" He took it gratefully and began munching.

"Well," I began. "I know more about you than that. For instance I know that you come from a place called the Shinigami realm and that it's a gray and desolate place without any colour. The apples there are dry and dusty and that's why you prefer earth apples. You're not the only Shinigami of your kind and you dropped your notebook upon the world because you had become bored with your home world and wanted to see if you could entertain yourself. You allowed a human, me, to pick up your death note so you could have some fun down here."

"Hmm, t-at's acc-urate!" he stated through chewing his apple. He swallowed. "But I'd like to know how you know so much."

"I'm getting there," I insisted. "Now, where to begin…ah right, I'm like you in a ways," I stated. "I'm not really from this world." And with that my story came out. I told him of my death and how I'd awoken in this world, a world I'd observed from a TV screen not so long ago. I mentioned how Light had been the original Kira and that I was now supposed to fill the role because of what the Cheshire had told me. The first murder I'd committed had been on impulse and soon after other things had changed and followed suit. I told him everything I could, down to the last detail. When I'd finished, Ryuk had already completed his apple, core and all and was thinking upon everything I'd said.

"So humans can either become Shinigami or necromancers huh," he pondered. "I honestly never knew that before. As for this Cheshire guy, I believe I've met him before some time ago. In fact, he's well known throughout the Shinigami realm."

"Is that a fact," I said coolly. "Well in that case I guess I can confide in you more than I thought. Now I know I'm not crazy and I don't need to worry about wondering whether or not I've been tricked by my own mind."

"I suppose that would give someone peace of mind. So anyways, I'm curious," stated Ryuk. "I'm wondering what you're going to do with the death note now and how things are going to play out. Will you rely souly on your knowledge of what happens in this world or will you completely change the story? I must say, I'm excited to see how things turn out." I sighed.

"Yeah I bet you are…" I paused. "In fact, sooner or later I'll probably feel the same way."

"So, why do you think you were chosen by the Cheshire? He's a pretty big deal." Ryuk had laid himself out over my bed, placing his head on his hand. I turned back to my homework, now laid out on my desk under the lamp light.

"Like I said, it's because I know what it's like to die and I know where to draw the line. He said he chose me because I would be able to control things better and not go overboard."

"Oh I see. So then you don't mind if I stick around for a bit until it comes time to write your name in my death note?" I froze at that, hand and pencil almost touching the paper of my language notes. I bead of sweat dripped down my brow. Ryuk seemed intrigued. "Oh I'm sorry, didn't you know that that's what happens to all or any human who uses a death note? Or did your world forget to elaborate on that detail?" He grinned maliciously. I began shaking.

"No, I knew," I gulped. "I just forgot about that part." Ryuk started laughing.

"Hah, I sure hope you don't see yourself as some kind of god now that can't die. The truth is that no matter what you do, you're still human and sooner or later all humans die." He continued laughing. I got angry.

"Yeah well you're wrong you know!" I snapped back. "I know that all humans die at some point, we're not immortal. And don't you dare think I see myself as a god because I don't. I'm just an ordinary regular human, just as frail and fragile as the others. I'd be foolish to think otherwise." Ryuk sat up on my bed crossing his abnormally long legs.

"Ah, so you admit that you're nothing more than human? That's the first time I've heard of this happening. After all, anyone who's ever held a death note before has claimed otherwise."

"Yeah well, I'm not just anyone," I replied coolly. "I'm human and there's nothing more to it. I know what it's like to die and I know what it's like to feel pain. I know how it feels to feel weak and unable when there's so much you could do. Being human isn't easy, it's hard." I turned my attention towards my window and gazed outward.

"We're all creatures born and bred on this planet, tangled up in our own webs of lies and deceptions. We can't see everything and yet deep down we can see all. We're cursed with the teachings of those before us who weren't necessarily good people and we've only determined one way of right and wrong, changing it up some to fancy our own beliefs. But in the end, we're nothing more than one species on one world. A person is only one and the world is all. It's constant and vicious cycle of being." After my long and distant sounding monologue, there was a long and uneasy silence that soon began to envelope everything. Soon Ryuk took it upon himself to break the silence.

"Oh boy…well that was really deep. You sure are insightful kid, I'll give you that. I take it you'd admit that you're afraid as well?"

"Naturally," I replied. "I'd be a fool not to be. However, I know that if I don't do this all alone, then I'll be fine. I just have to wait a while for allies who'll come to me eventually and I can work from there. And of course, if you're staying a while then I'll ask for your help as well. I already know you could care less about the human race but what I told you before about the necromancers," I paused to look at him. "The truth is that your world is in danger too."

"Heh, I couldn't care less about either or," Ryuk stated simply.

"Yeah well, don't push me," I warned. "Oh and since I'm a girl, I'll need to ask you to leave my room when I'm changing. If I catch you doing anything perverted…" I glared at him a memory of one of my old high school classmates doing just that and getting what was coming from me later. Initially I hadn't usually been one for violence but I never allowed anyone to touch or look at me the wrong way. It was one of my rules. Ryuk obviously got the message from my glare but he decided to poke around the subject anyways.

"Ooo, you look angry," he stated. "Let me guess you'll do something terrible. But I must ask this. What can you a mere human possibly do to me?" An evil grin played at my lips.

"Well, since I'm from the other side…" I began. "I know how to kill a Shinigami and let me tell you it's worse than any torture a human could experience." One look at my eyes again and he could tell I was serious. He gulped a little. I then returned to my original composure.

"In any case, I suppose I should get to work again on my homework," I said turning back around. "If I don't get the easy stuff out of the way, I won't be able to ask Light for help on math before he goes to night school and that'll just be a pain." With that I began working on my language studies homework again and the room fell silent. Ryuk decided to be polite and not bother me. Instead he came over and watched me from a far. I got a bit annoyed.

"Hey, they're some more apples downstairs if you want some," I stated. Ryuk's features lit up.

"Oh really?" he exclaimed. "Goody, thanks!" he went to leave the room.

"Yeah just be sure you're not seen," I called over my shoulder.

"But I can't be seen by anyone but you," Ryuk replied. I turned giving him a weak pretend smile.

"I meant make sure nobody sees the apples. You might not be able to be seen but they can." Ryuk thought on it for a while.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," he agreed. "Well then I'll just be careful. I'll be right back." With that he closed the door behind him and creeped down the hall. I returned to my homework once again.

"Now this…is really interesting," Ryuk stated. We were sitting in my room staring at my computer screen. After about a month with my new "job" the websites with the name Kira had begun to appear all over the internet. I'd looked into a lot of them and actually, I was almost flattered by all of the attention. Almost!

"It seems people are finally taking notice of my actions," I stated. "I wonder how things will escalate now." Ryuk chuckled beside me.

"Heh, I don't know but I'll bet it's going to be good."

"Yeah," I mumbled to myself. I continued clicking through the sights. Some of them seemed to be run by some sort of cult the others were blogs either claiming they'd seen Kira or were Kira. I smirked at that. Some people out there would do anything for attention. The only comforting thing was that I was the one who was Kira and so I didn't have to worry too much about being killed by Kira. The power was in my hands and it was my responsibility.

However, I remembered from the series that this was the point in the story where L would likely get involved with the police. Sooner or later he'd set up his headquarters in Japan and begin moving around from hotel room to hotel room to keep himself a mystery to me. I leaned back in my computer chair and sighed. Because of all of the work I'd been doing, I'd been keeping myself locked up some more in my room especially while Light was at cram school. Perhaps one of the greatest differences was that Light was still in the dark on the subject and hadn't come into contact with the death note yet. In my mind that was a good thing.

"So what's next?" Ryuk asked excitedly. I leaned back in my chair cupping my chin with my thumb and index finger in thought.

"Well, if I'm right, the police of the world have started to realize that these criminal's deaths aren't mere coincidences. They'll start calling them murders and meet together as the ICPO, they'll be having a meeting to discuss what they should do about me." Ryuk seemed intrigued by this.

"Ooo, and what are you going to do about that? Are you going to take them all out?"

"What no!" I replied surprised by the question. "I've already decided that I'm not going to kill anyone who's trying to capture me. I know it seems idiotic but I don't feel taking out honest working men just doing their jobs is justified."

"Oh and who are you to talk about justice?" Ryuk questioned. "You've killed dozens of criminals already and you're playing your role as Kira quite well. Would anybody else think this is justified?" I sighed already annoyed with the Shinigami.

"Yes you do have a point, not many people would see that as justice but nonetheless, I still have to continue my work. The Cheshire was fairly specific in saying I had to choose people who I thought were unworthy to live any further and those who shouldn't have died in the original series couldn't be one of them. So I'm basing my morals off a rule from another anime I watched not too long ago in my world. The rule is that of equivalent exchange, in other words fair trade. Those who've committed murder even once without any real good reason to gain something will pay with their own lives as a fee for either failing or succeeding."

"Oh I see," Ryuk stated with understanding. "So it's like an eye for an eye kind of deal. But then what about those who've committed crimes involving accidents they didn't mean to happen or those forced into a crime? What are you going to do then?" I remained facing my computer screen as I responded.

"Take a good look at the names I've already listed Ryuk. Not all of them are names from within Japan; they're names from criminals all around the world. Before I wrote them down I actually did research into the trials given and their pasts. I found out information about them and watched them closely on the news. Some criminals I saw, I didn't write down their names after they'd been set free or were found guilty. I'm like my mother I guess; I'm somewhat a good judge of character and after being in contact with the Cheshire I dunno, I guess I've been able to just sort of tell who needed to die and who deserved a second chance."

"So you gave them second chances based on a whim?" Ryuk inquired.

"I suppose you could say that. I'm also a Christian and I've seen some results of second chances and those people went on to do better things with their lives. If I just kill every criminal based on the assumption they're all corrupt beings unfit to be called human then that kind of makes me a heretic doesn't it? The point is that humans aren't all perfect. We make mistakes almost every day and sometimes some of them can be crossing the line. Then there are those who believe highly in their own religions and consider all else around them unimportant. We're a curious race of beings that don't understand the complex meaning of the universe or even our own species.

"So how can I judge others based on my beliefs alone and call myself a god when I'm only a mere human just like them, ignorant and primitive? I might have power, yes but so do others and even though our powers aren't the same, they can still be dangerous. After all it's not the type of power that matters in my opinion, it's the way you use it!" After that, Ryuk remained quiet as I continued flicking through the Kira websites.

Eventually I got bored and turned off my computer. It was a weekend so I decided to go out for a walk. I grabbed my coat from the closet and left my room, carrying my blue notebook with me instead of the death note. I'd left that in my bra and underwear drawer. I knew for a fact that Light would never dare go in there and I usually did all of my own laundry that Mrs. Yagami and Sayu wouldn't have any reason to be in there. However, just in case, I'd also put it in a medium sized jewelry box with a lock that I'd purchased from a farmer's flea market. The death note was safe…for now anyway.

I walked around downtown that day. Ryuk floated behind me trying to make conversation but every time he'd beg me to say something, I'd give him a withering glare that said, "I don't want people thinking I'm crazy because I talk to an invisible Shinigami", and that usually got him to shut him up for a while. Eventually, he'd gotten me to buy him a bushel of apples which he'd enjoyed eating while we were in the park. At least that had kept him quiet for a while.

A little while, she was in an abandoned coffee shop. The only one there was the cashier and the diner staff. As she sipped the coffee which she'd recently hated in her old life, Ryuk once again tried to make conversation.

"Alright, we're away from all people in a booth at an abandoned coffee shop. Can we talk now or what?" I ignored him and raised a hand. The waitress came over and stood by the table.

"Can I get you anything else ma'am?" she asked. I nodded.

"I'd like some apple cider please. After I'm done my coffee I'd like something sweet to rinse off the bland taste." The waitress nodded understanding.

"I get it, just trying to wake up?" I nodded again. "Will do then." she wrote the order down on her pad and left. A while later, she came back and placed the apple cider on the table then left again, leaving Ryuk and I alone. I looked up at the Shinigami then gestured to the cider.

"Go ahead and drink," I said.

"Huh, me?" he replied.

"Yes you." I rolled my eyes. "I thought that since you're an apple lover you'd like to try them in a different form." Ryuk picked the cup up with new found interest.

"Oooh! This should be interesting," he stated.

"Careful, it's hot," I warned. With that he began blowing on the steaming liquid. Then he took a sip and even though he was a god of death, I could see a spark of excitement and life in his eyes.

"That's incredible. How do you do it?" he questioned. I gave short burst of laughter.

"It's not too complicated. Some people use the drink mixes, the artificial stuff but since these people debut in the farmers market every Saturday, they make it with actual apples. It took me forever to find someone who made it the natural way."

"Oh I see; that's very interesting. Tell me, are there other things in this world made with apples?" I grinned slightly.

"Oh yes," I replied. "There are apple pies, apple crisp, apple crumble, apple juice, apple cobbler, and the list goes on. You'd be surprised with what they've created just using apples."

"That's quite impressive. I think I'll try some of them while I'm here."

"You do that," I said nonchalantly taking another sip of my coffee. Then I realized something. "But not without my consent when we're in public together, okay?" Ryuk brought the cup he was drinking from down from his lips. He thought about it then shrugged.

"Yeah, sure. But what about when we're not together?"

"Honestly I couldn't care less. Just don't get the attention of the media."

"Fair enough," he replied then continued drinking his cider. Since we were left alone and the waitress's didn't come back, we were safe from them seeing floating cups. Somewhere along the line, my phone buzzed in my coat pocket. Answering it, Mrs. Yagami told me it was getting late and I should think about coming home. So I paid for our, "my" two drinks and we headed home. That night around the dinner table, I noticed something a bit different. It didn't take me long to realize it though. Apparently Sayu had noticed as well.

"Hey mom, where's dad tonight?" she asked. I looked up from my dinner and Light did as well. Mrs. Yagami glanced at the empty chair beside her at the dinner table. She sighed as she paused eating.

"Your father's been assigned a new big case and so he's going to be late tonight," she replied. Light seemed a bit intrigued. I had noticed ever since I'd arrived that he shared interest in his dad's field of work.

"What kind of case is it?" he asked. I could see the spark in his eyes although he hid his excitement fairly well. I too was on the edge of my seat wanting to know if this was it, the case concerning Kira; now me; and how things would escalate. I was kind of nervous. Mrs. Yagami placed her fork down.

"I honestly don't know," she said. "If your father feels we should know then he'll tell us himself when the time is right. Meanwhile you should just be focused on your studies young man." She stood from the table, already finished her meal and walked over to the garbage can to discard any leftover gristle and bones from her dinner plate. "Oh and Light, you're on dish duty tonight," she called over her shoulder.

Light picked up his glass of milk and took a sip. "Yeah okay," he replied after he'd set it down again. He continued eating, the look of curiosity still dancing in his eyes. I laughed a little to myself calling his attention. "What?" he questioned me.

"Oh nothing," I sighed. "I just know that look is all. I know you're not going to let this whole mystery case thing go until you know what it is." Light blushed a little and turned back to his meal as if he'd been caught by his mom doing something he shouldn't.

"Yeah so," he muttered under his breath. "What's wrong with wanting to help him out? I've done it before." "But what if it's not that interesting?" I questioned knowing full well how intense it was going to become. Light just shrugged.

"That's why I want to know," he replied simply. I shrugged myself and finished my meal. Downing my milk I rose from the table and scraped off the excess food that couldn't be digested into the garbage can. Then I placed my plate and cup in the sink. I glanced back at the table and caught something out of the corner of my eye.

"Sayu, you're supposed to clear your plate and put it in the sink like the rest of us. TV isn't going anywhere in the next three seconds," I scolded. Sayu, who'd been trying to sneak into the TV room without having done so, stopped mid tiptoe and turned slightly back to me. I supposed I looked like her mom usually did while scolding her; my hands on my hips and my right hip jutted to the side unimpressed with an expression that said, "Where do you think you're going?"

Sayu gave a nervous smile and giggle. "Oh right, how silly of me to forget," she said standing up straight and rubbing the back of her neck guiltily. "I'll get right on that," she said as she came back to the table and did as she was told. I rolled my eyes as the young brown ponytail passed by me a second time and made its way to the living room, sitting on the sofa to watch her favourite show.

As I left the dining room, Light passed me to clean his and everybody else's dishes. I knew that afterwards he'd go upstairs and continue studying again then he'd turn in early. Tomorrow would be a Monday so there would be school and night school for him. I honestly wondered how anyone could come up with a complex sleeping pattern as he had that allowed him enough time to rest. Personally, during my time at my last high school, since I'd been a major procrastinator; no thanks to my friends; I'd been terrible for sleep since I'd end up trying to complete major projects and assignments in one night, the night before they were due. Luckily for me, I had been very good at finishing in time and making the piece authentic. However, it would drive my parent up the wall, them seeing me not getting enough sleep. Then I'd be up again at five thirty the next morning to wake up the rest of the family. Initially, in all cases, Light was the better student than me and so was Sayu.

As I entered my bedroom upstairs, Ryuk was waiting for me on the bed. I tossed him an apple I'd snagged from the kitchen and he happily accepted, immediately taking a big bite.

"So," he began through a mouthful of apple. "About the whole police getting involved thing you mention earlier…how exactly are you going to respond to that?" I sat down in my computer chair and turned on my lamp.

"I'm working on it," I said. Ryuk took another bite.

"You know, killing them with the notebook would be easier," he commented.

"I've already told you Ryuk, I don't want to kill any of them. If they're not convicted criminals then I'm not going to let them die."

"Fine, fine," he sighed. "But I'm just saying it'd be easier." He began consuming the core of his apple. I wondered just how he could do that. _Must be a Shinigami thing_ , I thought to myself. Then I turned around to confront him.

"And what fun do think that would be?" I questioned. The Shinigami looked at me with questioning eyes.

"Eh?" he said. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is I know you don't really want me to take the easier way," I accused, pointing a finger at him.

"Really and how would you know that?"

"Simple," I smiled smugly, crossing my arms and leaning back in my chair. "Because I know you dropped your death note in the human world on purpose for an excuse to come down here for a good time. If I took the easier option, I'd be done too quickly and you wouldn't get as much enjoyment out of it now would you?"

The Shinigami stopped to contemplate what I'd just said then nodded. "You could be right but what makes you believe you know for sure?" I snorted.

"Oh please, humans created the whole "Making up and excuse to leave and have fun" bit. besides, you said so yourself in episode one of the series."

"Eh, sure why not, let's go with that," he shrugged. I turned around to face my desk again and opened up my laptop. I sighed as I pulled up the document of my essay which was due tomorrow and I hadn't gotten started on besides the title and my name. I groaned as I stared at the screen then pulled up the internet to start the research.

"This is going to be a long night!" I exclaimed as I finally got started on my research paper. Somehow in the back of my mind I had a feeling that if the Japanese police didn't do me in for being Kira, for being a procrastinator, my history teacher sure would.

"Well it seems you've avoided the chopping block today Ms. Ranger," my teacher commented. Then he eyed me skeptically. "But let's try to get these things done earlier before you find yourself in the hospital," he warned. I smiled up at him sheepishly.

Despite me getting my paper in on time, I'd lost a lot of sleep the night before unable to get to bed until three thirty in the morning. Then I'd woken up at five thirty A.M. in order to get ready for school which had left me with only about two hours of sleep. Apparently it showed in my bloodshot eyes this morning and somehow my history teacher could tell how late I'd stayed up. Because of that, he usually docked me points on my grade.

I slumped back into my chair, groaning tiredly. Light was sitting beside me in this class and so he naturally took the chance to talk to me as our teacher was collecting the rest of the papers.

"You shouldn't be staying up so late just to finish a paper. You should've started when it was assigned so you didn't have to rush it."

"Well excuse me, not everyone can be as organized as you Mr. Super Genius!" I snapped snidely. Evidently I got cranky without a lot of sleep. I'd have to watch myself around the gym teacher today. Any snide or rude remarks even muttered within her hearing range got anyone who'd spoken them something a lot worse than detention; pushups with her sitting on your back. If you couldn't do ten at least, you'd have detention and a hard time all week.

I huffed and turned away from him to gaze out the window only to find that Ryuk was floating there instead. My glare was all he needed to understand not to mess around with me today. I'd been told by people in my old world plenty of times that if looks could kill, I'd be the one to look out for, no pun intended, and I was pretty sure that went for Shinigamis as well.

"You don't have to be so touchy," Light commented. After that he decided it was best to just keep his eyes up front where our teacher, who'd finished collecting papers, was beginning the lesson. I ignored him and focused on anything else but the lesson for the day.

After school, I headed straight upstairs to my room where I dumped my bag and turned on my mini TV. It was on the news channel and I didn't feel like changing it. I allowed the speaker to drone on, dozing off in the process. I had only been sleeping for about an hour when all of a sudden there was an interruption in the daily scheduled news which had been reporting another of my attacks.

"We'd like to apologize for the interruption…" said a man's voice.

"Huh?" I groaned as I groggily lifted from my pillow which I'd been drooling on.

"As of now we are bringing you a live worldwide broadcast from Interpol's ICPO" As soon as the name was said, I was wide awake and upright in an instant, alert and ready.

"Oooh," Ryuk started. "I take it something good is about to happen?" he questioned.

"Yes but shush!" I exclaimed. I heard someone in the background of the broadcast say,

"What, are we connected now? Oh we have a feed, okay!" Another voice came on.

"We now take you live to the ICPO!" Suddenly the screen changed to show a man in about his late twenties or early thirties. I couldn't really tell since I was bad at telling age. He was dressed up in a gray suit, had long, mid neck length black hair and had a somewhat pale disposition. He had a black tie and was sitting behind a large desk with the logo for ICPO behind him and a huge name plate with his name in clear, black bold letters written across it. Lind L. Tailor.

"I head up a national police task force which includes all member nations," he began. "I am Lind L. Tailor, otherwise known as L. Criminals all around the world are being murdered by a serial killer. I consider this crime to be the most atrocious act of murder in history. I will not rest until the person or the persons responsible are brought to justice. Kira, I will hunt you down, I will find you!" he declared.

"He seems certain he'll catch you," Ryuk stated beside me. I leaned on my side on my bed, my hand cushioning my cheek and my elbow digging into my pillow. I closed my eyes then opened them again.

"Don't kid yourself," I stated. "That's not L." Ryuk gave me a look of interest.

"Oh, then who is he and what is he doing?" I rolled over onto my back to look at my ceiling recalling the series.

"He's," I said pointing to the TV screen. "The man the real L. is using as a decoy to draw out Kira. In the original series of Death Note, this broadcast is said to be being broadcast all over the world when in actuality, they're only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan. This was how he found Kira the last time."

"Oh really? Do explain." Ryuk sat down at the edge of my bed. I smirked.

"It was actually really clever really," I admitted. "First the broadcast is announced as worldwide and…oh wait, he's speaking again," I said indicating the voice speaking over the television.

"Kira!" he continued. "I've got a pretty good idea what your motivation might be and I can guess what you hope to achieve, however… what you're doing right now is evil!" Ouch, I thought. I had winced at the word evil. However, I couldn't disagree. What I was doing was indeed considerably evil. At that moment I thanked god I wasn't Light Yagami. Then I winced again realizing god probably didn't want to hear from me at the moment. I noticed the smug grin that Tailor displayed after having said that, although it didn't really bother me as much as the word.

There was a long pause afterwards. I didn't move a muscle. Then the screen went blank for a second before returning to its regularly scheduled program. Ryuk looked at me curiously.

"So, what happened after that part?" he asked. I sighed, rolling back on my back again as I'd turned over to watch the rest of the broadcast, and put my forearm over my closed eyes.

"Basically after the worldwide broadcast was announced and Lind L. Tailor made his appearance and speech, the original Kira had over reacted too quickly and wrote his name in the death note in big bold English letters, at least that's what was shown from my perspective." I paused as I took a big yawn then continued. "Then Lind L. Tailor died of a heart attack on live television and the original Kira thought he'd won but he'd been wrong. The insignia that L. uses to hide his identity appears and the real L. using a voice disruptor speaks out over the Kanto broadcast in shock.

"That's when the explanation comes out. L. hoped to find Kira by using the decoy as bait and it worked. From that whole scenario he deduced three things. One that Kira is real, two that the deaths of all the criminals were murders and that he was in the Kanto region of Japan. So because he'd acted rashly, the original one who was supposed to be Kira instead of me ended up getting himself shown up by L. on live television." Ryuk was stunned by what I'd explained. Then he started laughing.

"You humans are very interesting indeed!" he admitted. "So what are you going to do now, just let him go?" I stayed in my current positon for a while thinking.

"No," I replied. Ryuk shifted on my bed and I could tell he was confused yet intrigued. "Lind L. Tailor may have only been a decoy but L. himself admitted that he was an inmate whose information hadn't spread to the news through any means which made him an unknown criminal to the original Kira. His execution was scheduled for today and while I don't know what his crimes actually were, I'll still have to kill him."

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Ryuk wondered. I smiled as the idea began to creep into my head.

"Simple, I'll just wait until they're broadcasting in a different country or on a different continent other than Japan. That way when he dies after giving his speech then L. will reveal his true intentions there and I'll have sent him on a wild goose chase." Ryuk chuckled.

"Sounds interesting. So where are you going to be killing him from?" I thought on it for a moment then shrugged.

"I guess I'll do it from New York. Crazy shit always happens over that way in the states so it would make a good place. New York just has a bad rep for stirring up stuff," I replied matter of factly.

"Isn't that a bit stereotypical of you?" Ryuk asked. I moaned tiredly.

"If you want the truth, it was the first city that popped into my head okay?" Again Ryuk chuckled at my answer.

I groaned as I sat up and turned off the television. Then I went over to my computer and started browsing the internet. Finally I found a website that would offer a free view of the news in New York. I pressed play and allowed it to play for a while.

"What's this for?"

"If I don't pay attention to the news, I won't get the timings right. This could take a while," I replied not looking up from the screen. Before I could get comfortable however, I heard Mrs. Yagami calling us down to dinner. I sighed and left for dinner, knowing full well that she'd come up and get me if I wasn't down within five minutes or ten of her calling. I turned back to Ryuk.

"Don't touch anything," I warned him as I closed the door behind me. Then I made my way downstairs.

At the dinner table, I couldn't seem to escape the topic of Kira. It seemed everyone had seen the broadcast. Sayu kept saying how scary it sounded that there was someone was out there killing criminals.

"I mean, think about it, maybe criminals are only his starting point, he could start with business corporations next!" she said, making wide hand gestures to make her point. Mrs. Yagami sighed.

"I know it's a scary thought but Sayu could you please avoid taking your brother's eye out?"

"Oh, sorry Light," Sayu apologized to her brother as she brought her eating utensil back to where it belonged. Then she turned to him again.

"So Light what do you think about Kira?" she asked innocently. I was immediately attentive as I wanted to hear what a non-Kira Light Yagami would say. Light placed the cup he was drinking out of back on the table.

"I don't really know," he stated. "I feel as though I somewhat understand where Kira's coming from but still…that doesn't really give him the right to judge others and take their lives. I mean the other day I was attacked by an escaped convict and…"

"You were what?!" Mrs. Yagami shrieked immediately in a panic. I too was shocked by this. "Why didn't you tell me about this Light?" she asked sternly. Light sort of blushed realizing he'd just let something that was supposed to be secret slip.

"I didn't think it mattered at the time and I didn't want you or dad to worry. Can I please just finish my story?" he pleaded. Mrs. Yagami looked reluctant to just let it slide but I could tell that she was supposing she could bring it up with the Mr. later. She nodded and Light carried on.

"Well okay then. I was attacked by the convict while walking home from night school and he was holding knife to me demanding that I give him cash. I didn't have much I could give him so I just decided to hand what I had over. After all it was just money. Then as I was holding out the money, he all of a sudden seized and he died of a heart attack right before me." Sayu visibly shuddered beside her brother. I could tell there was something different about Light as he told his story.

"Anyway, I remember seeing how scared he was and the pleading look he gave me as tears welled up in his eyes. It really took me off guard as it all happened. And right before he died he gasped out the words, "Forgive me Karin," then he collapsed and I saw an open locket in his hand of a little girl who must've been his daughter then he was just…" Light paused a while, visibly shaking as he recalled the horrid event. "Gone!" he finished. Mrs. Yagami sighed as she stood from her chair and approached her son. She gave him a comforting hug and he accepted it gratefully. Then as they pulled away he turned to Sayu.

"As for what I think of Kira…it's not always justified to kill someone for committing a crime because sometimes the greater crime is taking the life of someone who could deserve a second chance." There was a loud clink and every one turned to look at me. I'd just dropped my cup onto my plate and even though it'd been on its way to the floor after being unbalanced, I had saved it with my quick reflexes. I blushed bright red.

"Sorry," I apologized, "It slipped."

"That's fine," Mrs. Yagami assured. "Good catch though." I laughed nervously while scratching the back of my head.

In all honesty, I hadn't quite expected an answer like that from Light Yagami and I hadn't even heard of any escaped convicts so it couldn't have been me who'd killed that guy. Either way, I had been caught off guard by both events and I was truly shocked.

After I recovered from my recent almost accident, I finished my dinner then got started on the dishes since it was my night of the week. When I was finished, went upstairs to my room. Just as I was about to go in, Light was coming out of his room for night school. He turned to me.

"Hey, you should probably get some more sleep tonight so you're better in school tomorrow," he advised. I began scratching the back of my head again.

"Yeah, I'll get right on that," I lied. I knew for a fact I wouldn't be going to sleep until after I'd killed Lind L. Tailor after the broadcast in New York. So I wished Light well in night school and watched as he left and his mom followed him. Obviously after having heard that her son had been jumped, Mrs. Yagami wasn't taking any chances. Despite Light's best objections, which I could hear upstairs, I later heard the second car take off down the street. I sighed as I closed my bedroom door.

"Hey," Ryuk started. "I heard what Light said about the escaped convict. Just thought you should know that his name was Jugo Kimble and his name isn't in your death note. He died of an honest plain old heart attack because he suffered from a disease. I guess his heart just chose that one moment to fail him." Despite the fact that I had already guessed I hadn't killed him, I still gave a sigh of relief at the news.

I went over to my dresser and pulled out a pair of clean PJ's and underwear. I turned to Ryuk. "Let me know if the broadcast comes on the New York News or not, I'm taking a shower," I said.

"Fine," Ryuk sighed. Then he slumped onto my bed and I left the room, crossing the hall and entering the bathroom. I took a nice long, hot shower to make myself feel better. Then I returned to my room after having blow-dried my hair.

"Nothing's come on," Ryuk mentioned. I looked over at my computer screen to see the regular old New York news. I groaned, thinking that it probably meant I'd be up late again tonight and I wasn't half wrong. Finally at about two in the morning, when I was almost falling asleep, the broadcast came on suddenly.

"I head up an international police task force which includes all member nations," it began again. I realized that every word was perfectly the same as the last time and came to the conclusion that it must be a re-run. I was right as I recalled seeing this play several times before beyond another screen. I sighed to myself as it was playing, "Finally!" as soon as the word evil was re said, I cringed again slightly then waited only a few seconds as I wrote down the name Lind L. Tailor in neat lettering underneath the last name I'd written yesterday. Ryuk looked at me.

"How do you know this will really work when it's not the real guy?" Ryuk wondered. I looked at him amused.

"How'd you know he wasn't real?" I asked in reply.

"Because when I look at him now, his name and years left to live don't show over his head." That sounded interesting in deed. When I didn't say anything else Ryuk went on to say, "Which reminds me, do you…"

"No, I'm not going to make the Shinigami eye deal," I said flatly cutting him off. Ryuk looked taken aback at first then he just shrugged.

"Right, forgot you're from a world where you probably already knew that. Never mind." As we watched the screen further, the man onscreen didn't die. However, after forty seconds had gone by, an insignia of the letter L. appeared onscreen in his place and a distorted voice began to speak in rapid shock and excitement.

"Huh, I had to test this just in case but I…I never thought it would actually happen," he started. "Kira…it seems you can kill people without having to be there in person. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just witnessed it with my own eyes." There was a slight pause and I could feel Ryuk leaning in to get a better listen.

"Listen to me Kira! If you indeed were seeing this broadcast, and you targeted Lind L. Tailor, the man you just saw on television, after what he said, I should tell you that you succeeded in killing him. He is now dead. However, I doubt you would've saw that on the screen. I should also let you in on a little secret, that man, Lind L. Tailor…he wasn't really L. he was merely an inmate whose execution had been scheduled for today or rather yesterday in Japan time.

"However, despite that, I am the real L. and Lind L. Tailor was arrested in absolute secrecy so you would never have heard about him on the news or on the internet anywhere in the world. It appears that not even you have access to information about these types of criminals. But I can absolutely assure you that L. is real and I am not a myth! Now, try to kill me!" he challenged. L. began repeating that phrase for a while, trying to egg me on. Ryuk glanced at me.

"Yes I know his real name," I confirmed. "No I'm not writing it down or sharing that information." Ryuk shrugged behind me.

"Fine," he said. "But still, if he knew who he was dealing with, he'd be more careful about what he said in public."

"If he knew who he was dealing with, I would already have been captured and he would know about you," I pointed out.

"Fair point," he agreed as L. finished his tirade of dares. I stared at the insignia on my computer screen and waited.

"Well Kira…it seems that you can't kill me after all," he stated. _No,_ I thought in reply. _I don't want to._

"So there are some people you can't kill," he continued. "You've given me a useful hint. Let me return the favor. I'll tell you something that I think you'll find interesting. Although this was announced as a worldwide broadcast, the truth is we are only broadcasting in the city of New York at the moment. In actuality, we'd started broadcasting only in the Kanto region of Japan and then I had the same broadcast shown in many other parts of the world too as a re-run of the first in order to see if we could find you and it looks as though we finally have.

"Even though we didn't have Lind L. Tailor on live in the New York City broadcast, we'd been holding him in a solitary cell, postponing his sentence until after he'd been seen all over the world. When you killed him after the broadcast, we'd been monitoring the progress of the broadcast and Lind L. Tailor himself. Thanks to all that, I now know where you are. You're in New York and even though your first killing was actually in Japan, on a man whose crimes weren't as serious as your other victims, your killing patterns have varied from Japan to other parts of the world.

"However you've also attacked more Japanese and American based criminals than any other criminals in the world which leads me to believe that either you travel or you've been trying to shake me off your scent by killing a fair amount of people in other parts of the world either from New York or Japan. Since these are the location descriptions of your first few victims and since your first victim hadn't committed a more serious crime, I've deduced that your first few killings were little more than experiments and that you haven't been killing for very long.

"To tell the truth, we started broadcasting in the world's largest cities due to their larger populations and thankfully after a bit of work, we've found you. To be completely honest with you I never expected that things would go this well but it won't be too long now before I am able to sentence you to death." There was a slight pause as Ryuk began laughing in the background. Turning I saw that he was holding my death note and was reading through it.

"Heh, he's right. The majority of people in this book were from either Kanto Japan or New York. You even wrote it down. Looks like you weren't as attentive as you thought!" I slumped down into my chair grumbling under my breath.

"Well it's not my fault I keep getting saddled with all of this school work. I don't even go to night school and I probably get more than Light."

"Actually it is your fault. If you were more attentive in class and didn't leave your homework till the last minute then you wouldn't be given extra assignments to make up for your lower grades." Ryuk chastised.

"Like I need a lecture from a Shinigami who doesn't even attend school!" I snapped. I turned back to the screen as L. continued talking.

"Naturally I'm very interested to know how you're able to commit these murders without being present…but I don't mind waiting a little bit longer. You can answer all of my questions when I catch you. Let's meet again soon, Kira." And with that the screen went blank. I watched the loading symbol circle the screen as they tried to maintain their regular broadcast and silence blanketed the room for a while. Then I burst out laughing uncontrollably like a maniac. Ryuk was curious.

"What's so funny Lila?" he asked. I continued laughing trying to calm myself down enough to be able to breathe and answer his question. Finally, I was able to pull myself together and as I wiped a small tear from my eye, I turned to Ryuk.

"Oh nothing really," I sighed. "It's just that even though I goofed up a bit, I was still able to dissuade his attention from souly Kanto Japan and so now, I've given myself a bigger time frame. Now that this change has occurred, I can't wait to see how things will progress."

"And about getting them out of your way without actually killing them…how's that going?" Ryuk retorted. I yawned as I turned off my lamp and computer then made my way to my bed where I pulled back the covers and crawled underneath. I yawned again as my head rested on my pillow.

"I dunno. I mean I guess I have this idea but I'm going to need more time to think about it. I'll let you know when it comes to me because I think I'll need your help to pull it off and yes I know you don't want to side with anyone but you know what? In my opinion it would seem a lot more fun to you if you got involved." I said. Ryuk shifted in the air, thinking about what I'd just said.

"Hmm, well maybe. I'll think about it too and wait a minute…did you do your teeth?" he questioned suddenly.

"Huh, what are you my dentist? Why the sudden interest in my oral hygiene, I did em after my shower," I moaned. I could feel Ryuk shift uncomfortably beside me again.

"Oh, no reason…just some random question that popped into my head is all," he stated. Then I heard him make his way over to window. "I'm going out for a while. I'll be back by morning," he said.

"Uh huh," I replied. He opened then closed the window as quietly as he could and was off as I fell asleep under my covers, knowing that in about two or three more hours I'd have to wake up again to get ready for school.

 _"_ _Don't worry L."_ , I thought to myself. _"I don't care what you try or how you see me…you're not going to die!"_ And with that I fell into a deep peaceful sleep.


	4. Chapter 3 (Farewell Raye Penber)

**_Chapter 3_**

 ** _(Farewell Ray Penber!)_**

It was yet another long, long school day and even though I hadn't expected it, at lunch I kept hearing a lot about Kira buzzing around the student populace. Ryuk once again was following me around like a shadow and Light, having seen the news this morning about the broadcast last night in New York, had insisted on keeping a close watch on me and his younger sister Sayu. This meant that after my last class at the end of the day he was waiting for me to walk me home.

"You know you don't have to do this right? I'm a capable young woman able to take care of myself," I told him as we walked towards Sayu's school to pick her up from her club. He shifted his bag on his shoulder and stuck his hand in his pocket.

Sorry but I'm not taking any chances," he stated. "After what's happened to us recently, I don't want to risk it. Call me paranoid all you want but I say the more likely place in the world Kira would be is here in Japan."

"Oh and how did you come to that conclusion?" I questioned warily.

"Simple," he replied. "Because the timings don't match up." I gave him questioning glance. "Let me explain," he continued with a sigh. "If L. wanted to broadcast in areas of the world with larger populations, he would broadcast the message in those areas first. So he started in Japan where the patterns of the killings were the highest and the Kanto region because of its large populace. If L. was tracking the ratio of the deaths and found that the city of New York and areas surrounding there were also with a high death rate, he would broadcast there next. Then he would broadcast around the world until the death rate numbers began decreasing until he got to the lowest percentage." He looked up to see if I was still paying attention. My attention was what he had and not because I was interested in his line of thinking but because I was beginning to get the feeling that I had royally screwed up.

"Anyway, if that was the broadcasting method he'd used then he would've definitely broadcast in New York after having broadcast some more around Japan. Therefore, the time of the original live broadcast in New York was around the same time we were probably eating dinner last night or while I was in night school; you'd have to account for the time of the run of the broadcast. Meanwhile the death announced by L. of Lind L. Tailor occurred after the original broadcasting at around two o' clock our time during a re-run of the report in New York which could suggest that Kira had access to the internet and was browsing around for new targets, coming across Lind L. Tailor at that time and deciding to kill him after he'd been accused of being evil. Therefore, that's how L. probably figured he could only be in one place at one time and matching the death rate ratios and the times between Japan and New York plus the length of the re-run, he figured that Kira must be in Japan but also had access to New York news. Obviously what he said on television was also a psychological trap set for Kira to make him start panicking while also remaining with a false sense of security that he's a lot safer than he could've been."

Light kept walking as my jaw hit the street. How the hell did he deduct that so quickly? Was he right, was L. just toying with me? Did he really actually believe that I, Kira, was in Japan? I had been so confident that I'd gotten a one up on this world's greatest detective but had all of that just been my naivety kicking in? God, I was such an idiot!

I heard Ryuk chuckling behind me and when Light wasn't looking, I whirled around and gave him the death glare which only made him laugh harder and my cheeks burned red. Damn and I thought that I was smart here too. I guess my knowledge of this world didn't compensate for actual wit. Now L. was probably going to use my little slip up to his advantage. And I couldn't just start killing more in another area. That would more than likely add on to his hunch and prove him right. Not to mention that if Light really did get involved with this case, I'd have two super genius's to deal with. Just perfect!

"Hey, are you alright?" Light asked looking back at me. I had begun to trudge slower behind him deep in my now anxious thoughts. Quickly recovering, I picked myself up and started rubbing the back of my head.

"Sorry," I apologized sheepishly. "You're deductive skills are still a little mind blowing sometimes. I just can't keep up." Light just scoffed and chuckled a bit.

"Well I suppose that's to be expected what with your current grade point average."

"What!" I retorted, my voice cracking as it jumped an octave. "Leave my grade point average out of this! I might not be a super genius like you but I can still kick your ass in karate smart guy!"

"Oooh, I'd like to see that battle," complimented Ryuk. In the peak of my embarrassment, I turned without thinking and shouted,

"Shut-up dammit!" Light seemed taken aback.

"Woah, where did that come from?" he asked bewildered. I think my face was on fire or at least that's what it felt like when the blush had completely filled it. I tried to speak but nothing worked.

"Where did…I mean, that um…I didn't really…words… not coming… out…right…" and with that I did a Tarzan sort of yell while grasping my head then I grabbed Light by the sleeve and started dragging.

"Hey, what're you doing…Lila what's gotten into you all of a sudden, where are you taking me?"

"To that milkshake bar downtown," I stated, thinking immediately of the rich creamy liquid with whipped cream and a cherry on top, running down my throat to calm my nerves.

"But we're supposed to pick up Sayu," he protested.

"We can do that too, on the way," I growled.

"But why…" he began.

"Because I'm menstruating and mamma needs sugar! Any more objections?" I snapped back before he could finish. Realizing he couldn't sway me he stopped resisting.

"No," he sighed. Still dragging him practically by the arm now, I began heading in the direction I wanted to go.

"Good," I said in false sweetness, "Because your wallet's buying."

"Wait, what?!" he exclaimed but before he could protest further, I just tugged him harder and began dragging him along with more force. Meanwhile Ryuk floated in the background muttering, "Poor guy".

After we had picked Sayu up from her after school club, I practically dragged her and her brother down to the milkshake shop where Mrs. Yagami had taken us to celebrate Sayu's birthday before heading to a movie a few months ago. After we'd placed our orders, Sayu and I sat in a booth with our shakes while Light payed for them at the counter. Then we sat down and ended up having a conversation about the latest movies coming into theatres and Light's upcoming entrance exam into the college of his choice.

Afterwards, having been calmed down by the sugary drink, we made our way back home where Mrs. Yagami had been waiting for us. Light had apparently called her while I was dragging him along behind me. I went upstairs and threw my stuff on the bed afterwards and began to wash up for dinner. I wrote a few more names in the notebook, ones I'd collected a while ago and then threw it in my bra and underwear drawer inside its lockable box. After which I made my way to the dinner table.

"And how was everybody's day today?" Mrs. Yagami questioned us while we ate. Mr. Yagami for once since receiving his new case, sat beside his wife eating quietly. Sayu was all too happy to talk about her day first. She talked about how in her world cultures class they'd started talking about Canada and how she wanted to visit there when she got old enough to travel because of the rumors of it having so many trees and how most of them had colour changing leaves in the fall and a bucket load of snow in winter that sometimes lasted through spring. She even went on about how there was a discussion about an end of the year class trip for when she finished the last grade of middle school. I couldn't blame her; I had come to miss the beautiful autumn colours of the country I'd grown up in, in my original world. In fact I missed the country all together.

Next it was Light's turn. He went over how the finals were coming up and how he'd scored highest in his class again but as he spoke it came across less arrogant and more like nothing out of the ordinary had changed anything. I could still remember how Mr. Yagami had reacted when Light had finally told him about the man who'd tried to kill him last week. He hadn't been brimming with worry as much as Mrs. Yagami but he had given Light a lecture on the matter of keeping secrets like that from family.

Then it was my turn as Sayu and Mrs. Yagami looked to me. Mr. Yagami and Light just returned to their dinners but I could tell they were still listening to the side of their ongoing thoughts.

"Well, um, nothing really new in school happened. We went to the milkshake bar downtown near Sayu's school and then came back here. So yeah, nothing much really happened for me today. So how about you guys?" I asked Mr. and Mrs. Yagami to quickly change the subject. Mrs. Yagami laughed lightly.

"Oh, I haven't really done anything besides go grocery shopping and whatever else a house wife does all day. After all, what else is there to do?"

"You could always go have a day to yourself mom," Sayu pointed out. "After all the delicious meals you make us, you deserve it." Mrs. Yagami blushed at her daughter's words. Then Light spoke up towards his father.

"Is everything okay dad?" he asked. "You look tired," he commented. Looking up at Mr. Yagami I could see some dark circles under his eyes indicating that he must've been working really hard on the Kira case which only I secretly knew about currently. Mr. Yagami sighed as he continued eating. After he swallowed he spoke like the tired old man he was.

"Yeah," he started. "I'm not able to say too much about it but this case I'm working on now is really tough." And he left it at that. _Darn,_ I thought to myself. _He hasn't told us about it yet which means it hasn't gotten that far into the series yet. However, some things don't add up. Why not now? Is it because Ray Penber and the FBI agents haven't been taken care of? Maybe…or maybe it's also because it's near the time where L is suspecting that Kira is a Student. What should I do?_

"Is something wrong?" Light asked suddenly, pulling me out of my reverie. I looked up to see Light, Sayu and Mrs. Yagami looking at me. I'd probably been making a face again, the one I made when I was deep in thought.

"Oh yeah," I quickly spluttered nervously. "I was just thinking about something is all. Nothing too important." I returned to my meal, trying not to seem too nervous. Afterwards, it was Sayu's turn to do the dishes and Light went upstairs to get ready for cram school. I on the other hand trudged up to my room and plopped down on my bed both physically and mentally exhausted. Ryuk meanwhile just floated nearby, munching on the apple I had snuck him. I had snuck one for myself as well and so I began to munch on it.

"So, what's going through your mind now? Is something big supposed to happen?" he asked as he took another bite. I swallowed my own bite of apple and thought before I spoke.

"Well, I'm going to have to start killing at different times now because now that that conversation is out of the way, I know that L is beginning to suspect a student. At least that's what I hope he's suspecting because anything else would become too confusing."

"But don't you sometimes take your death note to school?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah but now I have to apply the time management rule. In the original series, Light deducted that one could write down not only the cause of death in the allotted time given before the death becomes a heart attack; but the details of the death including the time, which means, I should be able to do the same thing. So if I write down every person's death and the time it's meant to happen, then I don't need to worry about having to even take the death note to school. I can just get up early every morning and write down every name before-hand. Does that make sense to you?" I looked up at Ryuk who was finishing his apple core in one gulp.

"Yeah, I guess so," he agreed as he sighed then became more relaxed after having swallowed. He floated closer to the bed where he sat down on the edge. "So what else is supposed to happen, do you know?" I shifted uncomfortably as I took another bite of my not even near completion apple. Damn, Ryuk was a fast eater!

"Well, after the timings of the deaths began to change after they started suspecting a student, L. began investigating the police because it had meant that Kira had access to police files. However, I don't know how to hack into Mr. Yagami's network files so how could I possibly know other than the knowledge I've already been given? Nevertheless, L. begins to investigate the police while the police become suspicious of L and begin to investigate him as well because he refuses to be truthful with those he doesn't fully trust. That gives us a time window.

"Then L. will bring over the FBI from America and one of them started following Light around. Because of that, it led to the agent's untimely death at Kira's hands only this time it's going to be different. I'm not going to kill him but I'll make it seem as though I have."

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" questioned a curious Ryuk. I sat up on my bed in a similar posture that L. would use to "Increase his deductive skills" as he would put it but instead, I leaned my back against the headboard because it was uncomfortable unless I did so.

"I've been thinking a lot about that and I think I've come up with a solution," I stated. I started twirling and playing with strands of my hair which was a habit I'd never been able to get rid of. "Simply put, instead of killing the FBI agents and anyone just doing their jobs and are trying to catch Kira, I was thinking that while Kira is a mass murderer, he or I could also become a kidnapper."

"A kidnapper eh?" Ryuk scoffed. "And how exactly are you planning on kidnapping a bunch of people without resistance?"

"Well that's the thing, there would be no resistance. I would make each of their kidnappings seem like accidental deaths and then nobody would go looking for them. I'd just have to find a way to get them to fall unconscious and such and then you'd have to help with carrying them. You are strong, right I mean physically speaking?" I asked eying him.

"Of course I'm strong but why would I want to help you?" he sneered in reply. I sighed knowing it would come to this.

"Look I know you don't care to join any side and that you're just here for entertainment purposes but if you don't help then I can't exactly fulfill that request now can I?" I reasoned. Ryuk seemed intrigued by this line of thinking. "Anyway, if I get caught too early, there goes your show and you won't have liked it as much as you could've. Besides didn't I already tell you that getting involved in this would provide you with more fun? Also you kind of owe me for dropping the stupid notebook in the first place and making me into a mass murderer here." I pointed out.

"Actually, the whole mass murderer thing was all you. I just dropped the notebook and didn't even know where it would end up," he retorted.

"Exactly!" I exclaimed. "And that's why you owe me because you were careless with one of the most dangerous weapons of mass murder in history and because it was me who picked it up. Plus all of the apple treats I've been giving you is another thing!" Ryuk huffed in annoyance.

"Fine, let's say I do help out, what's in it for me?" he demanded. I grinned maliciously, the way I usually did when making a deal with the devil aka my younger brother from my world.

"Why you get the promise that I won't kill you Ryuk." Ryuk tilted his head curiously. "I've already told you that I know how to kill a Shinigami and since a Shinigami isn't human, I'll have no problem killing you off using your own death note to do it." I watched him carefully to see how he would react. He scoffed again.

"Are you so sure that you can kill me?" he inquired. I didn't back down.

"Of course!" I assured him. "I remember just how to do it from watching this world from my world. I won't hesitate to do so either especially if you try to betray me and write my name. I'm pretty sure I can still kill you before I myself die of a heart attack or whatever else you could cook up in your twisted imagination. Besides, if you don't help me, you'll end up going home before I can give you more apple related desserts and dishes. Oh and don't think the whole extra lives thing will save you either," I finished. I looked straight at him as he finally sighed and shrugged.

"Fine then I'll help. But remember this Lila, I'm no one's lap dog. I don't do tricks and I don't follow orders from anyone. I'll only be helping you because it suits my fancy alright?" I grinned holding out my hand for his.

"Then we have an accord?" I questioned using one of my favourite lines from captain Barbosa from the Pirates of the Caribbean. Ryuk was hesitant at first then reached out for my hand with his abnormally warped one. I didn't even shudder when we touched even though his was evidently colder than mine.

"A deal," he replied nodding. I sighed and relaxed into a more comfortable position with my legs sticking out but my back still up against the headboard of my bed.

"Good," I said beaming. "Then it's settled. I'm not going to kill the FBI agents or anyone else who're going to get in my way. I'll just simply remove them and put them somewhere else. Now all I have to do is figure out where."

"Oh yeah, you definitely aren't going to get caught," Ryuk said sarcastically. My face immediately turned into a childish scowl. The Shinigami just shrugged then made his way to the window where he opened it. He looked back over his shoulder.

"I'm going out for a while. I'll be back a little before morning, goodnight!" he started to leave when I stopped him.

"Wait, Ryuk!" I called. He sighed turning back again.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Finish this for me, I'm full," I said tossing him the apple I'd been eating. I hadn't eaten much and now I was just tired of holding it. The Shinigami caught it gratefully and said, "Sure," before taking it in his hand and taking off out the window. I closed the window again knowing he could just phase through once he got back. I went over to my desk and finished my homework.

Afterwards, I pulled out my blue notebook from my desk with the collected names of people I'd already killed. I passed the many pages where I had crossed out the already dead people's names and even though I had been doing it for a while, I still shivered internally at the thought. I also realized that I hadn't written out how anybody else would die and had just been letting them die of heart attacks. I guessed I really wasn't as cold hearted as the original Kira.

I opened my laptop then started browsing through the internet for criminals in both Japan and New York just because I wasn't feeling too risky in changing anything like locations and such too drastically yet. God, I really wished I had the help of a super genius. I finished writing down the names I would write in the morning and the timings of their deaths.

Next, I went and took another shower, cleansing my body of the stress it had gone through during the day and wouldn't you know it, while I was sitting to take a leak I actually did start menstruating. I sighed in annoyance and fixed the problem with a pad for the night then washed up again and went to bed. As I laid there, trying to fall asleep, I wondered just how I was going to able to kidnap Ray Penber and where on Earth I was going to put him and the others when it was time.

I decided not to worry about it so much until after a good night's sleep which I'd already managed to neglect two nights in a row. I finally let the confines of sleep take me and soon fell into complete rest unaware that the answer to my problem was looming just around the corner and would be visited this coming weekend.

"Aunt who now?" I asked incredulously. I was still reeling with shock from the sudden change in atmosphere from the bombshell that had just hit.

"Aunt Ajisai. She lives in the country near mountains," exclaimed Sayu excitedly as she started hauling her more than likely over packed suitcase out of her room and down the stairs. "We haven't seen her in forever and mom got the call about her fall down the stairs this morning. Man I'm glad it's the weekend."

I followed her downstairs with my backpack swung casually over my shoulder along with my duffel bag full of clothes and whatever else I would need for the trip.

"Yeah okay but to spring it on us as we're coming in the door from school like this…it's kind of unexpected."

"Yeah and it's also awesome," Sayu countered, now trying to lift her bag over the threshold of the front door. "Just wait till you meet her. She's an awesome cook and she can make any kind of herbs into medicine. She's so cool!" I smiled at the girl's admiration of her aunt and at her struggle to carry her bag.

"Cool?" Light asked coming down with his own bag. "She sits alone in her cottage all day and does nothing but clean. Plus she's ancient and crazy."

"Oh come on Light, knock it off. You love her just as much as I do. I've seen the baby photos," Sayu pointed accusingly. Light just sighed and scoffed.

"Yeah before I knew how creepy she was," he muttered.

"Come on, I know she might seem that way to you but she's still family," I persisted. Mrs. Yagami came out with her own suitcase.

"That's right Light, so why don't you show some respect this time?" she suggested as she helped Sayu heft her bag into the trunk of the vehicle. Then she added her own as I added my duffel bag. "Oh and due to your father's work, he won't be able to come with us so we'll be going with just us and no Light, you can't stay behind."

Ryuk and I snickered in unison at Light as he was stopped by his mother before he could speak. Light shot me the annoyed glare however as Ryuk remained invisibly floating by my side. He placed his own bag in neatly beside the others in the trunk and finally closed it with a slam.

"Alright troops, are we ready to set off?" Mrs. Yagami asked with enthusiasm.

"Yeah!" shouted Sayu, jumping up in the air.

"Not sure but okay," I replied nervously.

"Anything but," Light groaned.

"Great then let's hit the road. Light you called your night school and told them it was a family matter emergency right?" Light nodded solemnly. "Okay then, everybody in." and with that we all piled into the car and buckled up. Then we were on the road, headed towards the Yagami's aunt's place located god knows where that I had had no clue about.

Aunt Ajisai had never been in the series whatsoever and I had barely known anything about Light's mother's side of the family. In fact, I was sort of freaking out now that we were headed into unknown territory by my standards. I sighed and watched out the window for most of the ride down as it got ever darker outside. Meanwhile, I would glimpse about to see if I could see Ryuk following the car or just his looming shadow. Thanks to the written excuse from Mrs. Yagami and the phone call from Light, the night school Light was supposed to be attending had excused him from the one class.

We drove for hours either listening to the radio or stopping by a coffee shop for a drink and some treats. As we went along, it reminded me of the car rides I used to take with my own family from New Brunswick to Nova Scotia with my siblings and me in the back of our minivan with the dog, and my parents up front talking to one another. We would stop at the Tim Hortons restaurant at the pass over in Sussex then sometimes a second time in Oxford. We would watch movies in the back on the flip down screens and sometimes get into the worst possible fights that would drive our parents insane. Every memory of practically every trip we'd taken together came flooding back in a wave I wasn't ready for.

There was the time when I had been stupid and had eaten potato chips for breakfast just before leaving despite my motion sickness then me later yelling at my dad to stop the car on the side of the highway so I could upchuck in the ditch out the window. Not the most pleasant memory but still one I had laughed at time and time again with my family whenever we got into the line of conversation. I sighed as I remembered it all, a small lump forming in my throat as the realization once again hit that I was never going back to them, that I was stuck here in a world I didn't really belong to playing the part of someone, some people had actually played because they were fans. _But if they had really known,_ I thought to myself.

"Hey, are you okay?" Light asked softly beside me. Sayu had fallen asleep on the other side of the back seat on his shoulder and he was looking at me with a sort of look that I'd used on my own younger siblings from time to time.

"Huh, what do you mean?" I choked out, surprised with how difficult it was to speak. The lump in my throat had shifted to a more uncomfortable position and then I felt something wet on my cheek. Reaching up with my hand to feel it, I realized I'd started silently crying. Light sighed and raised a hand to my face.

"You have something weighing on your mind," he stated as he wiped away a tear. I could feel my nose going runny and I silently cursed at myself for that because I hated mucus. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked sincerely. I was shocked that this was coming from Light who used to be the Kira I'd known before coming to this world. It didn't seem natural and yet at the same time, it did. Then I had to remind myself that despite all of what had happened in the original series, Light was still a human being. He was no longer the fictional anime character behind the screen. I thought about his question a while before turning away to look back out the window at the starry sky.

"I'm sorry, it's just…this whole road trip experience just stirred up some old memories is all," I said after a while. "I mean, I remember going on trips like this all the time cross country with my family. The thought of never seeing them again whatsoever…" I stopped midsentence. I'd been trying to act tough and seem only nostalgic but the truth was I had only made matters worse by talking out loud. The lump in my throat grew larger and I had to keep myself from turning around so he wouldn't see my tears. However, it didn't stop him from seeing my shuddering and hearing my sniffles.

"You know we're here for you right?" he asked. His tone was definitely that of an older brother figure, the one that he should be. It was comforting to hear because it was also another reminder that not only was he human but he was a teenage kid just like me. Just then we hit a bump in the road and the glass of the window that'd been where I was resting my head and hiding my feelings, smacked me back on the forehead. I sat up holding my new sore spot.

"Ow! Just great," I choked on my words again. The sudden bump on the head had left me embarrassed and vulnerable. "This…this sucks!" I started hyperventilating while I sobbed and the sudden memory of how I had had a heart attack afterwards the first time came back. I started getting scared. Then from out of nowhere, I felt a hand land on my shoulder. Shocked, I turned to see Light looking at me with concern. His eyes were able to calm me down; they told me I wasn't alone. He sighed and pulled me gently into a hug.

"Like I said, we're family now so we're here for you. Me, mom, Sayu even dad. We didn't bring you into this family to make you feel like you were all alone, we did it so you wouldn't be alone," he stated truthfully. The sincerity in his voice and the hug were definitely what I'd needed. The warmth of the hug had calmed me down and now I was breathing regularly.

"You know he's right honey," Mrs. Yagami chimed in from the driver's seat. Apparently she'd heard the whole thing. "We all agreed when we adopted you that you would be a part of the family not just some lost puppy we took in from the street. You can think of me as your second mother, Sayu is your little sister and Light is your brother. Whether older or younger depends on you though I suppose but nonetheless you're a Yagami now and you're definitely not alone." I looked up at her surprised then looked to Light then Sayu sleeping next to him. In a way I supposed they were right. However, it was different, especially since I had once upon a time watched them live their lives from the other side of a television or computer screen. And yet, I sort of did feel like I belonged with them in an odd way. I just decided not to think about it then and that I should rest after the trauma of the day. I blamed part of my emotional state on the unexpected pop quiz my teacher had thrown at us that day. Since I'd been unprepared via doodling, I got a zero out of ten.

I continued my silent tears unable to stop the flow, but at least I wasn't blubbering anymore. I leaned into Light's hug, completely worn. "Thank you," I whispered as I snuggled down and closed my eyes. The motion of the car, the sound of the wind passing us by outside at the speed we were travelling and the warm hug I was enveloped in with my older brother; _that's right,_ I thought, _he's my older brother_ ; with all of those combined, I finally drifted off into a peaceful slumber, exhaustion taking away my consciousness.

"Welcome back sister. What took you so long to come over?" Ajisai questioned as we approached the front door of the house. We had been driving practically all night and it was near morning now. I was rubbing the sleep from my eyes as I dragged my suitcase out of the back of the car.

Aunt Ajisai was standing before us in the front door of her little house. She looked like Light had described her, ancient with wrinkles on her wrinkles. I honestly had to wonder how much younger than her sister was Mrs. Yagami.

"Oh well you know us, we're as busy as ever these days what with Soichiro and Light now working so hard at what they do best," Mrs. Yagami replied with a tired smile. I felt bad for the woman having to drive all night and now that we were here, she looked about ready to collapse like I usually did whenever I never got enough sleep.

"Yes well that's hardly any excuse now is it?" he sister accused in a pouting manner. She turned her eyes towards Sayu. "And looky what we have here, my you've grown quite a bit since the last time I saw you and your brother too," she commented. She gave Sayu a hug and then took Light's reluctant face by the chin with her index finger and thumb to get a better look at him.

"Would you cut that out!?" he protested annoyed. Aunt Ajisai just scoffed.

"Heh, your size has grown but so has your ego," she complimented. "You'd do well to remember I don't accept backtalk under my roof mister so clean up your act!" She let go of Light's chin then turned to me.

"And who'd this little cutie?" she queried. "Is she your girlfriend?" she turned back to Light causing both of us to blush. "Because let me get one thing straight, there'll be no passionate encounters under my roof either, you got that? Oh but kissing is okay occasionally I suppose." The both of us tried to explain but our words came out all at once.

"What no way! We're not in that kind of a relationship!" I squeaked defensively throwing my hands up in protest.

"Where did you pull that idea from anyway?" snapped Light. "You can't just assume something like that!"

"It's not like that at all Ajisai," Mrs. Yagami intervened. "This is Lila Ranger. We adopted her after Soichiro found her near death after a terrible plane crash over Tokyo. She had nowhere else to go and so Soichiro decided he'd take responsibility for her. Of course he asked us first so it wasn't forced." Ajisai just looked at her sister with an unamused look on her face. Clearly something was disturbing her but I couldn't figure out what.

"She could be a terrorist!" she suddenly stated. I felt like I'd been stabbed somewhere. Everyone looked at Ajisai with their own choice looks. For Sayu and Mrs. Yagami it was looks of confusion then for Light, a look of anger and disgust. For me, well let's just say I looked like I'd either been tasered or slapped in the face. From her tone, we knew she wasn't joking.

"Ajisai, how could you say such a terrible thing?" Mrs. Yagami wondered.

"Simple. A plane crashes over Tokyo and she just happens to be the only survivor. Sounds like a terrorist attack to me and what's more, she's been deceiving you poor people as well ever since. It's all a part of their plan to get what they want. That's how a terrorist thinks."

"Ajisai," Mrs. Yagami began, sighing. "I don't believe Lila's a terrorist. If she had been, don't you think she would've attacked us by now?"

"That's exactly what she wants you to think. They always play you for fools so they can get their way, she's a liar. Don't you see? She could be plotting against you right now. Get rid of her!" She pointed a bony finger me and even though her claim of me being a terrorist was completely insane, I couldn't help but flinch at the accusation. It was clear that this woman didn't quite like me all that much upon first encounters and now I was beginning to see why Light might not like her either.

"That's enough!" Light shouted. "Lila's not a terrorist and she's not a liar, she would never lie to us like that! Why don't you go tell your deluded fairytales somewhere else? C'mon Lila, let's go inside and unpack. I'll show you to the bedrooms." He took my hand and began dragging me, suitcase and all towards the house and across the threshold. All the while Aunt Ajisai was shouting at our backs.

"Light you damned idiot! You bring her back here I don't want her in my house! She can sleep in the ditch for being a dirty little witch you hear me. Her aura's all wrong and she reeks of death!" My eyes widened at the last part as she disappeared from my sight. Ryuk was right there behind us.

"Yeesh, she gives me the willies!" he exclaimed. "I mean she can sense me."

"She can?" I replied bewildered.

"What was that?" Light asked from the front. I quickly backtracked.

"Oh nothing, I was just muttering to myself." Light thankfully hadn't heard what I'd said before so I sighed in relief. After a while, he let go of my hand and showed me to the room I'd be sharing with Sayu. There were two beds in it, set up across from one another and each side of the room had its own wallpaper. One side was darker in the other and I don't know if it'd been what Ajisai had said before or because I was a death note user but the darker side held more appeal to me than the brighter side. So I trudged over and dropped my bags on the bed.

"Just ignore what she says," Light told me from behind. "She's always been like this and believe it or not it gets on everybody's nerves even mom's." He paused a moment and sighed. "I guess I'll let you unpack and get settled now. It's almost daybreak but you should still get some more sleep. I'll see you when you wake up again." And with that he left me alone on the darker side of the room.

Not too long after, Sayu came in and took the lighter side of the room as I was unpacking my things. She began to unpack as well, getting everything in just the right place and not too soon after that, we were both in bed snoozing soundly. The light of the new day reaching through our window was what finally woke us up and with it we trudged downstairs to the breakfast table.

I noticed as we walked in that Aunt Ajisai was fairly quiet. Meanwhile her younger sister, Mrs. Yagami was sitting with her chin resting on her hand and Light was quietly sipping a hot drink from a mug. I decided to go the safer route and sit by Light instead of Mrs. Yagami because she was right beside the crazy old woman. Sayu took a seat by her however, not afraid of her at all.

"So what's for breakfast?" Sayu asked excitedly. If she had been a puppy, I could imagine her tail would be wagging. Aunt Ajisai sat up smugly and turned to her niece.

"Why pancakes of course with maple syrup and all the good stuff," she replied smiling. Then she turned to me, expression cold as ice. "You know how to make pancakes don't you girl?" she asked menacingly. I couldn't help but shiver.

"Um well, my dad taught me how to make them when he was still alive," I explained. Then the cold look turned into a cold smile or rather a grin.

"Good get to it then," she ordered. I was a bit taken aback by the sudden demand. "Get in the kitchen and make our breakfast. I'd do it myself but I've already decided that I'm not going to cook for the likes of you while you're here and my sister is exhausted from the long drive in. Sayu doesn't know how to make pancakes and it would just be a waste of Light's time to help you with such a trivial matter. So that leaves you. Go and make us some pancakes but don't burn them. God help you if you burn them." I flinched at her harsh words. Light obviously didn't like her forcing me to do it so he snapped back at her.

"Make your own damn pancakes Ajisai!" he barked. Then he composed himself and sat back in his chair drinking his hot beverage. "I for one am not in the mood for pancakes, I'll just have cereal."

"You're having bloody pancakes boy and don't you tell me what I'll be doing in my own house. Your mother ought to teach you some manners," she replied strictly. I could tell that besides me, Light was her least favourite amongst the four of us so I stood from my seat.

"It's okay, you don't have to fight. I'll make the pancakes. Light, I'll even pour you cereal if you want, just let me know which kind you want." I smiled at him, masking my unease and fear of the woman sitting across from me.

"But Lila…" he began.

"No, don't argue!" barked Ajisai. "We're all having pancakes this morning and you're going to like em if she does them right. So sit down and zip it. As for you," she turned to me. "Get your rear in the kitchen already and get started. Now!" she snapped at me. As if she was my drill sergeant and I was a cadet, I was immediately at attention.

"Yes ma'am! I'll go as fast as I can!" and with that I ran into the kitchen where she couldn't see me to begin making pancakes for the rest of the Yagami family.

At first I didn't know where to start. Her kitchen was a complete and utter mess of things here and there and I could barely see the cupboards. Eventually though, I was able to find all of the materials I needed and I thanked god that the ingredients needed for pancakes were all present and accounted for. So I began the procedure.

Pulling out a mixing bowl and aligning all the ingredients like I usually did when I baked, I began by staring at the bowl, completely unsure of myself. Meanwhile Ryuk was floating behind me looking on curiously.

"So are you really just going to let her push you around like that?" he asked. I shrugged unsure.

"I dunno, I guess so, maybe," I replied, completely distracted.

"Heh, that's not a reassuring answer. You shouldn't let people like that walk all over you the way she is already. We haven't even been here that long and she's already grown to hate your guts just from looking at you."

"Yeah well I'm not going to cause trouble here if I can help it and besides, she's suffered a fall down the stairs. I'm not going to hate her guts for that."

"But you will hate her guts for treating you like a servant," he countered. I flushed red in the face.

"Well excuse me," I retorted. "In my world I grew up a sheltered life and so I didn't really feel comfortable going against adult authority. I may have taken karate but I was still taught to respect my elders."

"Heh, whatever, I still don't like her. She can sense my presence and if I'm right, I think I've seen her before and that if she finds out about the whole death note thing, you'll be in more trouble than you bargained for."

"Don't be ridiculous," I stated. "She might be able to sense you but I doubt it's a threat. If she bugs you that much why don't you just hang out outside? Now if you'll excuse me I have pancakes to make." Obviously realizing that the argument about Aunt Ajisai was pointless to continue, Ryuk skulked away somewhere where he could be alone and left me to my cooking. At first, as I stared at the bowl, I was lost on where to start. Then I took a deep breath and began to work as the memories of the old Ranger family recipe for pancakes revised itself in my mind.

After a while, I had finished two and half batches of pancakes, putting each one on a large serving plate just like my father would've then I grabbed some tongs so that the others could dish themselves up some breakfast. All the while, I'd also spent the time cutting up some fruits and placing some vanilla yogurt in tiny bowls as a side dish. When I entered the dining room and placed the food in front of the hungry family of Yagami's, a sigh of relief escaped my lips.

"Bon apatite," I said.

"Wow, it looks amazing! You never told us you could cook!" Sayu exclaimed in surprise.

"Well, you never asked," I countered.

"Fair enough," Sayu replied as she began pouring syrup on her plate of pancakes.

"It really does look very lovely," Mrs. Yagami stated.

"Thanks," I replied again blushing. Light meanwhile just smiled in my direction. I nodded acknowledging his thanks and praise. Meanwhile, Aunt Ajisai stared at the stack in the middle along with the yogurt and fruit with skeptical eyes. Then she stood and headed into the kitchen.

"Something the matter Ajisai?" questioned Mrs. Yagami.

"Hmf!" she replied. "I don't trust her. Enjoy your pancakes and hopefully they aren't poisoned. I'm having cereal." My heart sank a bit as I watched her go then she spun around again and glared at me. "You're not allowed to eat anything until you've cleaned this entire kitchen witch. That goes for any other meals today and snacks as well." Once again, I flinched at her words. They felt like a slap to the face.

"Now Ajisai," Mrs. Yagami began.

"Don't you now Ajisai me sister," Ajisai interrupted. "If this witch wants to stay within this house, she'll be working her ass off doing as I tell her to do. This isn't your house, it's mine!" Mrs. Yagami looked like she'd obviously been shut down and she still seemed too tired to argue any further. Light however seemed ready to do so.

"Screw you and your rules!" he shouted at her. In all honesty, I'd never seen this side of Light before. "If you're going to treat Lila like crap the whole time while we're here than we'll just leave and you can deal with your own broken leg. The point is whether you like it or not, she's a part of this family now so you're just going to have to deal with it!" I was taken by surprise by Light's sudden outburst, but I also appreciated him standing up for me. However, Aunt Ajisai felt differently.

"Well if you feel so strongly about it…" she began. "I'll just have to put you to work as well young man. Now I don't know how well you are with a hammer and nails but my roof needs repairs and nobody around seems to be willing to help me out with it. So if you're going to continue to back talk your own aunt then you young man will be heading up onto the roof after breakfast and repairing the damage with your own bare hands."

"Did you ever consider nobody wants to help you because they don't like you? You should start treating others with respect instead of acting like such a bitch!" he countered angrily.

"Light!" shouted Mrs. Yagami. Light looked towards his mother who was giving him a look that said, "don't piss off your mother", and it was the first time I'd ever seen it used on him. I'd seen it used on Sayu many times when she was being stubborn with her school work or wanted something she'd already been told no about. Light continued looking at his mother, shocked by her raising her voice with him.

"That's quite enough out of you young man. I thought I raised you to respect your elders. Now when you're done your breakfast, you can go to your room and think about ways to tame your tongue. Then you can help your aunt by fixing the roof," then she turned to her sister. "And Ajisai, would it really be a crime to let Lila eat her breakfast before she cleans the kitchen. At least with food in her belly she would be able to do a more efficient job because she would have energy." Ajisai thought about it for a long while and finally sighed, giving in to her sister's request.

"Very well," she said turning to me with a very harsh glare. "Eat your breakfast girl then get your butt in gear. I want this kitchen finished before lunch and then you can make lunch and clean up before you're allowed to eat. Then I want you to meet me in the living room, got it?" I nodded sighing internally with relief.

"Yes ma'am. I'll do the best I can." I bowed my head then as it had become my habit to do so even in my old life as a show of respect towards those who held the authority to boss me around from teachers to older people in general.

"No you won't," she snapped. I looked at her in surprise. Had she already changed her mind? "You're not going to the best you can, you're going to do the best I tell you to do or you won't get so much as another scrap of food until tomorrow's dinner!" I nodded quickly.

"Yes ma'am!" I said again, once again bowing. With that, she left to get herself some cereal and I sat down to eat my own breakfast. I hadn't done that bad of a job actually, they almost tasted just like my dad's but I guessed I hadn't added enough salt or was it I had added too much? Either way they were pretty good and the fresh fruits Ajisai had had in the refrigerator had tasted just as good and with the yogurt too. In fact, I was surprised she'd asked me to make pancakes and not some form of Japanese meal. However I was somewhat glad since my memory only held Ranger family and Canadian recipes. A lot of them I was planning to use for Ryuk so he could try some other apple delicacies from other parts of the world.

After breakfast was done, I collected everyone's plates and headed towards the kitchen while Light headed upstairs to his room where he would probably spend his time on the school work he'd brought with him so he wouldn't have to think about other things. Aunt Ajisai, who'd joined us after getting some cereal, got Mrs. Yagami and Sayu to follow her to the backyard garden where they would spend time tending to it and cleaning things up.

When I was finished with the kitchen and Aunt Ajisai approved of its cleanliness, she brought me into the living room where we sat down across from each other. It felt uneasy as I was alone with her and everybody else was performing their duties. As we sat there and she stared at me, I felt inclined to look anywhere else but her eyes. However, I couldn't help myself from staring as my eyes came upon her leg cast for the first time. I had known she'd fallen down the stairs but at her age I'd expected that she'd have broken more than just her leg.

"Can I help you?" she asked drawing my attention immediately elsewhere as I didn't want to get on her bad side any more than I already had without doing anything. However this seemed to only make her angrier. "Look at me when I'm talking to you girl!" she snapped. I immediately turned to face her as I was told.

"Sorry," I squeaked. She just rolled her eyes. Now that I was looking at her I could see that she was writing on a notepad with a pen. She seemed to be finished. Then she handed me the piece of paper.

"There, here's the list of things I need you to do today and don't think you get fed or can go to bed until it's all done. If I catch you slacking off, I'll make sure you sleep outside. Oh and tell anyone and that'll become a promise." I gulped as I nodded and took the paper. "Good then get started already and get out of my sight!" After that she stood leaving me alone in on the couch across from the one she'd left. After she was gone, I looked back at the list and groaned at the work load she'd given me.

The list was made up of practically every other chore that wasn't occupied at the time. Light was still upstairs getting ready to fix the roof and Mrs. Yagami and Sayu were still outside in the garden. Ryuk had flown back in, fazing through the wall of course, and was now looking over my shoulder.

"Sheesh, not even here for one full day and you've already become her house maid," he commented. My eye twitched in annoyance at his statement of the obvious.

"Yeah well I don't see you picking up a broom or a mop!" I pointed out.

"I'm not really sure that would work out so well what with her keeping a watchful eye on you and all. Besides, what would everyone think if they saw a floating mop? The others would think there was a ghost around and the old woman's witch theory would be settled. If anything at all, she definitely wouldn't shut up after that." I growled in annoyance once again.

"Look, if you're not going to be helpful then just leave me alone while I work because I know I won't be able to concentrate with you floating around and chatting it up in my ear."

"Aww, I'm a little hurt Lila," he replied mockingly. I ignored him and headed towards the staircase. "Huh? Where you going?" he questioned. I turned back, an unimpressed look on my face.

"Upstairs of course," I said holding up the paper. "First on the list is the bathrooms." And with that I spun on my heel and made my way upstairs.

I spent the majority of the day inside cleaning every nook and cranny as I was instructed. Aunt Ajisai would come in every now and then to check on my progress and thankfully she wasn't as heartless as Cinderella's evil step mother although she was quite close. Finally as the sun began to set, I came to the last item on the list. She wanted me to go deep into the woods behind the house and look for some kind of berry that was common in these parts of Japan. As was prescribed, I didn't tell anyone where I was really going and just said I was going exploring. Mrs. Yagami said it was okay as long as I was back in time before it got too dark and late. I promised and was off with a basket hanging off my arm. Boy didn't I feel like little red riding hood.

As I walked through the woods, using Ajisai's directions to find my way, I stumbled through much undergrowth and many other things as well. It wasn't the typical Canadian forests I'd grown up around, no it was a Japanese forest and it held many wonders within so I wasn't too sour towards Ajisai for forcing me to do her chores. At least this way I'd be able to see something neat.

After a while, I finally came to a large clearing with a huge lake in the middle and in the middle of the lake was the island that Aunt Ajisai had described. I made my way over to where she'd told me in the note that there was a wooden bridge that would allow me to cross and then on this island I was supposed to find the berries she'd wanted. Ryuk floated behind me as he'd decided to accompany me on this journey. Luckily for me, the bridge was sturdy and I wouldn't fall through. I made my way across.

"So you don't find it the least bit suspicious that she sent you to a secluded island on a lake that only she knew about?" he asked warily looking around. Some fog was beginning to from and it was getting slightly darker. It'd taken me an hour at least to find the place.

"She must be very specific about where she gets her berries," I tried to explain although I didn't feel too safe around the area either. Ryuk didn't believe me though which I suppose was fine since I didn't believe myself. "Look, we'll just get the berries and be out of here. Then we can go back and hopefully be done for the day." We heard a sudden snap behind us. I whirled around to try to see who it might be but I couldn't see through the fog. "Probably just an animal," I said to myself.

As we set foot upon the island, we found the bushes with the berries immediately. I was the one who did the picking though. Ryuk just floated behind me. Halfway through picking the berries, I noticed something about the island that I hadn't before. I stood, leaving the basket on the ground and began walking deeper into the trees on the island.

"Hey, shouldn't you be focusing on finishing your berry picking?" Ryuk asked as he followed me.

"Yeah, I know. I'll finish after I see what else is on this island." As I went deeper into the trees, I pulled out the flashlight I'd brought with me and turned it on. As I came out into a clearing, I gasped as I beheld a big building standing before me. There was what looked like electric fencing surrounding the place but it looked like it was inactive. I got closer, finding a hole in the fence and crawling through without really thinking. Ryuk fazed through the metal and came to float beside me again looking around curiously.

"This looks like a cool place. I don't sense any life around though so I doubt we'll have any problems with people as we poke around," he commented.

"Heh, aren't we intrigued," I accused. Ryuk just shrugged.

"What can I say, I'm just as curious as you." We made our way around to what looked like the front door. I was able to open it after a few tries as the door came off its hinges. I had to lean it against the other door. We entered, my flashlight leading the way. Looking around I saw an information desk of some sort and some chairs that were supposed to be set up beside it but were all over the place. The tiles looked fairly new but also aged a bit as well. I noticed a set of double doors to my right.

"I wonder what's in here," I said aloud, drawing Ruyk's attention and we both pushed our way through. It was easy despite there were electric card scanners beside it. We walked down the hallway behind them and through another set of double doors into a room with little office like areas set up with a screen of glass between one side and the other. There were phones on either side as well and on the other side I could see two sets of doors on either side of a wall. They were labelled with letters and numbers. Immediately I made a hypothesis.

"Hey Ryuk, I think this could be a prison," I said as I looked around more.

"Eh? What makes you say that?" he question.

"Well based on its remote location and the layout of the inside so far, I doubt it could be a bank. Let's keep looking around. We might find some cells."

"Yeah sure, whatever you say," replied Ryuk not really that amused. We made our way to a door on the side which took me a while to budge open. As soon as I was through, I made my way to one of the side doors and pushed through. We walked down the hallway and came to an elevator shaft next to a stair case. Taking the stair case we walked or rather I walked, down the stairs and came to a lower floor. It was way too dark to see anything with just a flashlight. I looked around for anything that might help but still couldn't see. Just then my flashlight flickered and died.

"Damn it!" I said aloud. "I should've changed the batteries!" I felt something move behind me all of a sudden and shrieked.

"Jeez it's just me, no need to get so jumpy," Ryuk stated. I silently cussed under my breath embarrassed as my heart beat started returning to normal. "I don't know if it'll help but I can actually see in the dark so I can help you out if you need it but I'll only do so until we get to the power switch on that wall," he spoke again. My ears perked up.

"Power Switch?" I questioned. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, It's over there in the big power booth in the center of this place. It's actually a really well made prison." So I'd been right about it being a prison. I sighed and nodded before realizing that he probably wasn't paying attention.

"Yeah, lead the way Ryuk," I said. I felt the hand of the Shinigami in mine and the tug as he began pulling me through the pitch black. I didn't know why but for some reason, I trusted Ryuk with my life already despite him being a Shinigami. I heard the click of a door and he led me inside of another room. It smelled of must and other things I didn't even want to think about. Ryuk placed my hand on what I hoped in my mind was the power switch. I got my answer as I pressed it and all of a sudden I heard a hum begin throughout the place. Then all of a sudden all of the lights came on at once and I could hear the electrical energy flow through the facility.

Looking around I was in a room that seemed to be the central hub of the overlooking of the many prison cells down below. All in all it was a bird's eye view of what was below and there was a panel of monitors that showed the blind spots of the lower levels. Now there was definitely no doubt; definitely a prison.

"This place looks so cool," I commented excitedly.

"Yeah and it could solve your little crisis of where to put your kidnapped victims," Ryuk pointed out. I hadn't even been thinking of that but now that I was it was all too obvious.

"Of course!" I exclaimed. "This place would be perfect for them. there's even an underground courtyard!" I spoke excitedly as I pointed to one of the pictures on the monitors. There was also a small cafeteria as well and some kind of work out area in the courtyard. I looked at the control panel and saw many buttons with numbers on them. Out of curiosity I pressed one and jumped as the sound of moving metal began echoing out throughout the prison. I tried to calm my palpitating heart again as I realized I'd opened a cell door.

"You're really getting yourself worked up today aren't ya?" Ryuk asked.

"Oh shut up!" I shouted back. However, before we could get into another of our fights we heard a louder sound down below on another prison floor. We paused and looked over the console where we thought we'd heard the noise but couldn't see anything.

"Someone's here," Ryuk stated. "I can sense them." I shivered suddenly becoming cold.

"You sure it's not a rat?" I asked, trying to calm myself down a bit.

"If it were a rat I wouldn't have said anything," he replied. I bit my lip.

"Well, there's nothing left to do but go and check it out I guess," I said swallowing my fear and turning tail towards the elevator which was now operational across from the central hub. We went down to the level we thought was the level whoever it was, was on. I looked around cautiously and listened for any more noise. There was nothing but an eerie silence for a while then the grinding of metal happened once again. I whirled around to see that the elevator was heading up a floor.

"They're going up!" I shouted realizing I'd just stated the obvious like an idiot. I began running towards the staircase when I felt something whiz by me near my cheek. I stopped in my tracks looking around for the culprit.

"I'm afraid you're only half right girl," said a voice seething with bitter resentment and malice. I looked up slightly shaking as I realized I recognized the voice. Not too soon afterwards, the figure of an elderly woman with many wrinkles and a cast on her leg appeared. I stared at her in horror as her face came into the light. "I was right," she said. "I knew I was right about you." The face that matched the voice was none other than Aunt Ajisai herself.

My blood turned cold as I realized she'd thrown a knife at me. I felt something dripping down my face and reached up with my free hand only to pull it away again and see my own blood on my fingers. My heart began racing thinking she'd really flipped her lid. Nevertheless I tried to get an answer out of her.

"Aunt Ajisai, what are you doing here?" I asked shakily.

"Don't call me your aunt you witch!" she screeched. "You have no right to be with them, no right to be accepted by them after what you've done!" She limped closer, her broken leg obviously causing her pain but not slowing her down. I myself began backing away.

"What're you talking about? I haven't done anything!" I tried to reason.

"Lies!" she screamed. "You can't lie to me, don't even try. You're a terrible person, not even a person, a witch, a murderer, a cold blooded murderer!"

"No," I continued to protest. "You've got all wrong I haven't murdered anyone," I said putting my hands up defensively and twinging in guilt as I knew it wasn't entirely true. Sure I'd been writing down names in the death note, but it wasn't like I'd made it bloody murder. All of my attacks were heart attacks; I hadn't used any other methods. She started getting quicker despite her leg and I started getting more anxious.

"Don't pull that crap with me," she growled. "I know what you've done and so do you. It's clear as day, why it's written in these very pages!" she held up something rectangular and black and I didn't even have to see to know what it was. My heart dropped into my stomach as I froze in terror. She was holding my death note in her hand which meant she was able to see Ryuk right behind me. I was at a complete loss for words which was perfect for her to take the initiative and continue speaking.

"That's right, I know all about your little notebook. What's more, I know what a death note is and how it works although I can't say I'm personally too proud about that. Nevertheless, I made a vow that I would never allow another human to wield its terrifying power. I vowed I'd save them if they weren't already too far gone but now that I've seen how many names you've written down in your book there's no way in hell I'll let you live. An eye for an eye and a life for a life!"

"Wait, can't we talk about this? I'm not a bad person really, I've only been using it on condemned criminals and…"

"Excuses! Your victims being criminals doesn't make it right!"

"I Know, I know," I cried out. "But I don't have a choice. I have to do this."

"No more words from you girl, time to pay for your transgression!" And at that she lunged at me closing the distance quite efficiently with her broken leg and swinging another knife at me. I began using my self-defense skills to duck and dodge the blows. However, it seemed that she was able to keep up. Honestly I began to wonder if her leg was actually broken. Eventually I ended up slipping and the knife cut deep into my arm. I yelped in pain.

"There, you see," she started. "If you keep moving around how can I make it quick and painless? But wait, perhaps this is what you want. You know you're right, you do deserve to suffer. Allow me to help you with that." I decided I didn't want a fight. Sure I could defend myself but if I had learned anything in life, or rather my old one, it was to never get too engaged with an opponent completely out of their flippin mind unless backed into a corner. And so I turned and ran in the opposite direction.

"Where do you think you're going? You still have to die!" she said mockingly. I ignored her. I wasn't one who was easy to bait with words for I knew my way around them and better yet to ignore them. I held tightly onto the wound she'd inflicted earlier as I ran in the opposite direction. After a while, I could only hear my own pounding heartbeat and feet on the floor. I dared to look back, seeing she was no longer behind me. I slowed to a steady walking pace to catch my breath and mentally cursed myself for not keeping up with my physical fitness more than I should.

"Oh my, this could be a problem," stated Ryuk with what I was defining as a smirk. "Where do you think she went?"

"How should I know?" I retorted. "It's not like I'm an expert at keeping track of a crazy person!" All of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in my leg as a knife hit me in the back of my calf. I stumbled backwards onto my rear, yelping in pain and surprise. I looked towards the direction I'd been running.

"Oh goody," she commented, clapping her hands together and approaching. I quickly pulled the knife out of where it was lodged then quickly regretted it as more pain washed over me. "Well that was stupid," she chuckled. "That could've very well damaged the nerves in your leg although in all honesty it would help me out greatly so I don't really care. Now all I have to do is finish the job." She grinned evilly and I could almost see which side of the family Light would've gotten his dementedness from in the old series. I slowly backed up, unable to move my leg too well. I still had the knife she'd thrown at me and the only thing I could think of was that I needed to defend myself. I was that scared and that desperate. I just hoped I wouldn't start hyperventilating again.

She followed me as I backed up and with each limped step she got closer and closer. My heart hammered in my chest louder and louder and there was a voice in my head screaming at me to get up and run while the other voice yelled back in the same panicked tone reminding the other that I couldn't. Eventually I became cornered between a beam and the railing that kept me from falling downward to the lower levels. She licked her lips much like I'd seen many predatory anime characters do before, before the final strike and kill.

 _"_ _Oh no,"_ I thought to myself panicking. _"_ _This is it isn't it? I'm really going to die, I'm going to die again and I can't do anything about it like last time. I knew I wasn't cut out for this, I knew that it was too good to be true. I…I'm going to die!"_ She lunged at me with her other knife I was able to dodge an effective distance but shivered when I heard the metal knife clang on the beam. She reeled back ready immediately for the second strike, one I didn't think I could dodge this time. My eyes were wide with fear. Then all of a sudden a familiar voice hissed in my head.

" _Don't be so stupid girl. You're not allowed to die here so I suggest you do something about it and stop whining!"_ There was no mistaking the voice even though I hadn't heard it in a while; the voice of the Cheshire cat. Immediately, I reacted. I lunged forward without really thinking, out of fear and desperation I slashed out with the knife.

"Just leave me alone!" I screamed. I missed but it had made Ajisai step back in shock. However, the only leg available to do so on was her badly wounded one. She immediately seized up in pain and stumbled into the rail while yelling out in pain. The railing however wasn't securely fastened to the floor and her weight made it come loose. I watched in horror as she and the rail fell over the edge. My heart pounded in my chest as everything happened quickly afterwards.

I had noticed an emergency stretcher in a broken case for first aid nearby; in fact there was probably one on every floor in case of emergency. It was yellow and reminded me of the ones we'd use for practice back in my lifeguarding course. It was lying next to some conveniently placed ropes. I swiped it and the ropes (tying them effectively to the beam first and the stretcher) and jumped still not thinking about what I was doing, straight over the edge. I faced down, adrenaline rushing through my veins and out through my knife wounds. Ajisai was screaming her head off yet still had time to throw another knife which missed its mark and only grazed my ear.

I straightened my body to make myself go faster so I could catch up to her. Finally I was able to reach her flailing body then maneuver her onto the stretcher. She still tried to kill me but I was able to fight her back and buckle her securely into it using the straps. Suddenly we jolted as the rope had reached the end of its length and I was thrown off, tearing my nails on the back of it in the process. I looked up, seeing that the ropes were holding and that she was now caught in midair instead of falling, dangling sideways instead of headfirst over the rest of the drop. I also looked down seeing how close I was now to hitting the ground. My mind and body still pumping adrenaline allowed me to catch the railing of another floor instinctively. Despite the fact that I banged into the rail bruising myself more and nearly ripping my arm off, I couldn't help but give a sigh of relief. However, I was too weak to pull myself upwards. The knife wounds hadn't been too fatal but I'd already lost a lot of blood.

I looked up again and saw that the stretcher was still swinging slightly, an expression of utter shock enveloping Ajisai's face as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. Then I saw something else. Ryuk flying down, the lights surrounding him and outlining his deformed gothic figure. It was both beautiful and terrifying. He passed the stretcher and came to a sort of hover right beside me.

"That was a really gutsy move," he commented. "Now look at you, you're a complete wreck. Why go through all of that trouble and risk your own life for someone who just tried to kill you?" he asked. I smirked, holding on to the railing and praying I had the strength to hold on a little longer.

"I don't know really. In all honesty my body just moved and my mind followed. I guess I just didn't want her to die because it wouldn't be right," I replied.

"Uh hello, she tried to kill you," Ryuk pointed out again.

"So what," I retorted. "Just because it saves my life I should disregard someone else's? I'm not a murderer, at least not a blood thirsty one and I'm not about to change that now just because my life's in danger." I had to stop for a few minutes as I could barely breathe since the whole ordeal had left me practically breathless. "Besides…at least a heart attack is more merciful than falling to your death and this is nothing. I've been in a car accident already and I've been shot at. Then I had my own heart attack and died. I'm pretty sure I can live through this." A sharp pain in my side made me wince and I nearly let go of the bar of the rail. I tried to reclaim the grip I had had but to no avail. Tears filled my eyes.

"I never wanted this, I never wanted to be a murderer and I still don't. I also don't want to be responsible for someone else's death because they hate me. Aunt Ajisai clearly has had her own experience with a death note and so because she's known the pain and agony of being in contact with one, she's liable to hate me for doing something like taking lives. She doesn't deserve to die. If I were in her shoes, I'd probably do something like what she did too.

"It's human nature Ryuk. We don't like pain and most of us don't like pain inflicted on others because of something we did or something we know is hurtful. Those of us who feel that way will either try to run away from the problem or try to do something about it. Sometimes it's that fear that creates villains and people who make bad decisions in the first place. We're not gods, we're only humans." I looked down as I contemplated the fact that Ryuk probably didn't care about humans that much despite they were now providing him entertainment. That was probably all they were to him, entertainment. I finally lost my grip on the rail and began falling to my second death. I closed my eyes.

Then I felt my body beginning to rise upwards. I opened my eyes again and looked up in surprise as I saw Ryuk was my savior and was taking me back up to the level I'd jumped from.

"You know, the only reason I'm saving you is so I don't have to go back to my own world too soon. Plus I'm really interested to see how things are going to play out. And then there's the matter of our little deal with the apples. I'm not letting you slip away from me that easily. Besides you're the only who can pull it off and I'm not one to mess with the will of the Cheshire." I chuckled lightly to myself.

"Wow, lucky me to get a Shinigami who's so caring," I said sarcastically. I looked up at him again and thought I saw something else playing across his features but I had never really been one for reading faces so I couldn't really tell if it was a shift or just the dizziness setting in from the loss of blood. Ryuk just scoffed at my retort.

Once back on the floor, I took a moment to breathe and glanced to the side to see that the ropes holding up Ajisai were tied to the beam. I was surprised to see that they'd been reinforced with more ropes and even some chains. Nonetheless she was stabilized for now. I sighed and groaned aloud as I moved towards the ropes.

"Hey what are you doing now?" Ryuk asked.

"Well I can't just leave her hanging. You might be opposed to helping out human beings but it's something I need to do." And with that I began pulling the ropes upwards straining to make sure I didn't tip her the wrong way. After a while of pulling as hard as I dared, I had worked up quite a sweat and I had grown even weaker than I had been before. The image of my surroundings swayed in and out of focus. It felt like I was on a boat rocking in the waves of an ocean. I could feel my whole body shaking, about to give way to the fatigue.

Then I felt the load lessen. I didn't argue or try to comprehend what was going on, I just kept pulling finding the strain on my muscles less and less unbearable. Finally the stretcher made it onto the same floor as myself and Ryuk. I couldn't even think clearly anymore. I quickly undid the straps once she was safe and with that I collapsed, running now a high fever. Ryuk came to hover over me.

"Now you're a real mess," he stated with a huff. "Now that the two of you are on the same level and she's free to roam about, there's nothing stopping her from killing you here and now so why even bother unbuckling the straps? Better yet, why not just use the death note to finish her off, put her out of her misery and send her beyond the loony bin? Or if you won't I could always write her name down," he suggested with a wide grin. I was immediately back; in my right, although it was still swaying, mind.

"No!" I shouted, my voice cracking painfully in the process. It had surprised Ryuk and I believe it also surprised Ajisai because I sensed she'd jumped nearby. I'd also surprised myself.

"I told you before," I continued. "I will never use the death note that way; never for my own personal gain or if it's to save my own life. And if you so much as try to write her name, keep this in mind. I know how to kill a Shinigami and I promised you before that I would not hesitate to kill you if you did something against me or my wishes!" I finished, breathing hard and wavering a bit on my hands and knees.

Ryuk seemed to shrink back. "Heh, whatever, it was only a suggestion. No need to get moody." He floated back towards the shadows. However, I was unable to keep myself in the position I was currently and ended up collapsing again, my consciousness fading. However, I did manage one last message.

"I don't blame you for wanting to kill me," I indicated towards Ajisai. "If I were in your shoes, I'd probably try the same thing. I can't imagine how much you've seen regarding the death note but it must've been terrible if you're trying to kill me. I just want you to know that I've never seen myself as anything more than human and I've always known the power of the death note is a curse. I also don't believe that people even though they're mean and cruel should have to die they're only human after all so they can't always help it. Oh and I'm sorry that I'm a murderer but apparently what I do now is whatever the cat says…goes." And with that my head gently landed on the floor and I fell unconscious.

 _Ajisai_

I stared at the girl for several minutes. The Shinigami floated off to the side not knowing what to do. Finally I gave in and sighed as I moved towards her. This apparently caught the Shinigami's attention.

"Woah, hey what're you doing?" he questioned, some slight panic clear in his voice.

"Relax Grimm, I'm not gonna kill her," I huffed annoyed and rolled my eyes. It was true. I didn't have the drive to kill her now, not after I'd gotten closer to her aura. That moment when we'd been embraced after the girl had leapt foolishly with no concern for her own life and had caught me; that brief moment was when the girl's aura which had set me on edge and high alert from the moment of her arrival had finally become clear to me. It hadn't been what I'd thought and I'd over reacted I now realized. The guilt weighed heavily upon me. However, I'd been right about the death note and that a Shinigami had been nearby. Only after I'd broken into her things and touched the death note could I actually really see it.

Then there was the cat. She'd mentioned the cat and if she knew the cat then there was something else going on that I either could or couldn't get involved with because I too knew the cat and I knew he had his own way of doing things. Turning a girl into a murderer would be one of them.

"That sick twisted bastard," I muttered angrily under my breath as I knelt down beside her and began turning her over onto her back. I glanced guiltily at the wounds I'd inflicted and then at the swollen looking side and arm which had probably been injured in the rescue attempt. Once again I marveled at how fearless she'd been in the moment and now that I was sure about her aura I knew that she truly wouldn't have wished me dead. And after all I'd put her through like and evil step mother figure. Of course my younger sister could never have understood. None of them could but maybe, just maybe she could. And maybe I could understand her. Nevertheless, there would be two stories to tell when she woke up, hers and my own but that could wait until after I'd tended to her wounds.

"Hey Ryuk!" I barked out. The Shinigami seemed startled by my sudden outburst. Without turning around I said, "Go fly up to the central hub and bring down a first aid kit will you?" Once again I could tell he was shocked.

"I beg your pardon," he started. "But since when do I take orders from you human?" I wasn't in the mood for his lip.

"Since now!" I snapped back. "If you want your precious girl here to be made better, then do as I say or else I'll whack you one and yes I know how to hurt a Shinigami too. Now get a move on!" The Shinigami grumbled a bit but he took off nonetheless just as I knew he would. Despite him being a Shinigami, I could sense within his aura that he was genuinely frightened for the girl's life. While other Shinigami would've definitely brushed it off, he was different somehow and I knew he wouldn't want to write her name in his book. Auras never lied and that was a known fact. It'd been one of the things the cat had taught me that had been useful.

A while later, Ryuk the Shinigami had come back with the big first aid kit and placed it down next to me. I rummaged around, pulled out some things, then began to go to work not only using the kit's bandages but my own hands as I used my own aura, hers and the natural aura surrounding us to begin healing some of her wounds the best I could.

Aura! It never failed. Aura was basically life energy and it was everywhere, in life and death. The term aura actually referred to the atmosphere of energy surrounding a person but there was more to it than that. It could be used to heal, it could be used to lift things and it could even be used to create and to destroy. The art of mastering one's aura and the aura that surrounded them was called aura weaving. In fact the reason probably for my earlier fear for the girl was that she had an aura that was not only sincere to her character but terrifyingly powerful. I had no doubt that she could use it to become stronger in the future.

"So what's that?" wondered the Shinigami. "Some kind of human magic trick?" I snorted a bit.

"I suppose it would look somewhat magical to human eyes but I never imagined a Shinigami such as yourself would be so clueless," I commented. "Back in my days you Shinigami were more aware of your significance in the universe and now you just kill to maintain your own rotting lives. You don't even know why you exist. This is aura, life energy and it's everywhere surrounding you and I and Lila here. It's the very reason you were given death notes in the first place."

"Oh is that right?" questioned the Shinigami now intrigued. I rolled my eyes and went back to work. I had fully sealed the deep cut I'd inflicted upon her leg and now I was moving on to her bruised side. It took a while but finally, after a hefty work out, I was finished and she was healed to the point where her own body could take over and she wouldn't die. The next thing to do was to get her back to the house. Boy Light was sure going to blow a fuse when he saw her like this. The boy really did care for her. There was only so much an aura weaver could do before she had to allow the natural aura to take over.

As soon as I was done, I turned to the Shinigami just floating there with a dumb looking expression upon his face.

"Well are you gonna help out or aren't you?" I barked.

"Help with what?" he wondered with confusion.

"Oh what do you think?" I asked annoyed. "I'm old and have a broken leg and if you want her to recover we need to get her back to the house. So are you gonna carry her or not?" Something about the question caused a reaction from the Shinigami I hadn't expected.

"Carry her?" he questioned shocked. He looked about ready to have his own heart attack and his aura shifted to match his new and sudden mood. _So Shinigami can blush too,_ was all I could manage to think as I saw him. He seemed really bothered by it.

"Yes carry her," I snapped back. "I can't very well do it myself now can I?"

"But, but, but…she's human and I don't touch humans let alone human girls. They're disgusting and I have no need to come into contact with them."

"Can't be that bad if you've spent this long with her and you saved her life earlier. You didn't exactly look squeamish then and if that's the best excuse you can come up with then I don't wanna hear another word. Now are ya gonna help her back to the house or not?!" There was a long pause before the creature finally gave in with a long exasperated sigh.

"Fine, I'll do it!" he said like a defeated pouting child. He then moved reluctantly towards the girl lying peacefully unconscious on the floor.

"Be careful with her now," I told him as he surprisingly was tender picking her up as though she were a new born babe. And with that the three of us began to ascend the prison. I made a quick stop in the hub to turn off the power to the lower levels and then entered the elevator and arrived on the top level to turn off the rest of the power from the security desk. Then we made our way out into the woods.

As we got closer to home, I had Ryuk put Lila down so I could drag her to the door myself without causing suspicion or panic. I didn't get far though before the search party came looking for and found us. Light was the first one to emerge.

"Mom, they're over here!" he called. He rushed forward then stopped as soon as he saw what condition she was in. I'd bandaged her wounds and seeing those, he became furious with me. Who could blame him?

"What happened?" he demanded to know. I ignored him.

"Help me drag her inside," I said. As the others approached and took in the same sight, Light repeated himself.

"Ajisai, what happened to Lila?!" He said, raising his voice. I heard the gasp from my younger sister as she covered her mouth in shock and little Sayu looked on in confusion. I sighed deciding it best to continue playing the mean old aunt for the time being.

"Well I realized I hadn't given the girl enough instructions on how to properly pick my berries and what not so I followed her in about to give her a talking to as soon as I got close when all of a sudden this hole opened up beneath me, mind you a big one at that and that damned stupid girl…" I had raised my voice as if I were about to blame her for something but found myself telling the partial truth next in a calmer tone.

"That damned stupid girl leapt after me using a tree root for support and done gone and saved my wretched old life!" The others became surprised as I finished. First at the tone I had used and the new softness in my eyes then at the girl who was covered in bandages in wonderment.

"Lila saved your life?" repeated my sister still a little shocked. I nodded solemnly.

"That's right Sachiko," I replied. "She leapt in without any regard to her own safety throwing the berries away while she was at it. She got herself injured too and even though she was on her last bit of strength, she pulled me up and out. I was so surprised, I asked her why she'd go so far as to save an old grouch like me after everything I'd put her through today and you wanna know what she told me?" I asked looking them all square in the face. Sayu leaned closer.

"What did she say Aunt Ajisai?" She asked sweetly. It was at this moment tears began forming and falling from my eyes. I just couldn't help myself. I found myself repeating what she'd told me in the prison.

"She said she doesn't believe that people even if they're mean or cruel should have to die. She said that humans can't always help themselves in that manor," I sobbed a bit. My younger sister was suddenly there to help console me as a wave of painful memories from the past that she didn't know very well came to overwhelm me.

"Oh Aji," she said using my nickname and wrapping me in her arms. The waterworks came out now and I couldn't stop spluttering words.

"I…I know I haven't been fair to her. I even gave her the longer chore list, she practically did all of the work today while you n' Sayu were in the garden and Light was either in his room or on the roof. And…and she did such a wonderful job and I wish I had tried her pancakes this morning, I bet they were wonderful….and," it continued on. Sachiko held me and comforted me while I held Lila up beside me.

"Light," Sachiko said to her son. "Could you please take poor Lila up to her room? The poor thing looks exhausted and could use a warm bed to rest in." Light didn't hesitate. Apparently my shifted mood had confused him. He didn't seem to know what else to think or believe at the moment. He lifted Lila up off my shoulder and began to carry her through the wood and back inside as Sachiko began to lead me home as well.

"Sayu," she continued onto her daughter. "Go run inside and put on a kettle of Ajisai's favourite tea now won't you?"

"Yes mom," she replied eagerly. She really wanted to help oh God bless her little soul. And Light's and Lila's too. And then there's my sister, bless her too won't you?

After I was lead inside, Sachiko sat me down in my big comfy chair in the corner of the living room. It was cold out, so she had Light fix a fire in the fireplace as soon as he came down. After the tea was done, Sayu brought out little cups with saucers on a small tea tray for all of us. We sat by the fire in silence, listening to the classic music my sister had put on. Eventually I began to drift off and soon, consciousness slipped away for the night.

 _Lila_

I woke up back in my own bed at Ajisai's place and was greeted by the warm smell of breakfast wafting up the stairs. I sat up in bed a bit surprised that the pain I'd felt before was only in minor twinges now. I looked down at myself and saw that I was covered in bandages. They smelled fresh and I assumed I must've been bandaged before but someone had recently been in to switch my gauze. I continued looking at it curiously when all of a sudden it kicked in that I was still alive. Ajisai hadn't, even though she'd had plenty of opportunity; killed me. I continued staring at the bandages in bewilderment.

"That crazy lady fixed you up," said Ryuk, startling me suddenly from my thoughts. I whipped around to see him floating carelessly over my bed. "My, aren't we jumpy this morning?" he chuckled.

"Only because you're too damned quiet when it's convenient to you," I snapped back, blushing in embarrassment. "Don't startle me like that."

"Sorry," he apologized. "But anyway it's true. That woman, Ajisai was it, didn't try to kill you again. She used some kind of healing magic or whatever she called it to make you better than you were. You should consider yourself lucky to be alive."

"Yeah, yeah," I replied waving it off as I slipped out of bed. I stood up and stretched expecting a sudden stitch in my side but nothing came. Then I slipped on my slippers and made my way out the door and downstairs.

I looked into the living room to see that Mrs. Yagami and Sayu were sleeping soundly on the couch. Meanwhile, Light was resting on the other comfy rocking chair in the corner. I laughed to myself as I saw his position which reminded me of my dog when she used to curl up on the comfy chair back home. Then I made my way into the kitchen where the wonderful smells were coming from. Ajisai was standing in front of the stove making breakfast.

"Good morning," she said absent mindedly as she sensed me coming in.

"Morning," I mumbled. Then there was silence as we just stood there not knowing what to say. She glanced over her shoulder.

"I'm making breakfast this morning," she said. "It's white rice, miso soup, a rolled omlette and some spinach salad with sesame sauce. I hope you like it." I nodded.

"I'm sure it's delicious," I replied reassuringly. Sometimes I kept forgetting I was in Japan. The only reminders were that of the harsh schooling and the cuisine. I wasn't complaining though.

I entered the kitchen deeper with caution. There were so many questions on my mind that I couldn't figure out where to begin. Ajisai seemed to be reading my mind.

"Could the questions wait until after breakfast dear?" she asked. Her attitude surprised me. Just yesterday, she'd been snapping at me as though I was a soldier and she was my commanding officer but now she sounded like her own age and like she cared for me. I was genuinely confused but nonetheless, I agreed.

"Yeah sure," I replied. Then Sayu came into the kitchen rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Good morning everyone," she said. Then she glanced up at me. "Oh Lila, how're you feeling this morning?" she asked.

"Um good I guess," I said.

"Oh that's good. Mm, hey what's that smell?" she wondered.

"Aunt Ajisai is making breakfast this morning," I replied.

"It smells good," she spoke again this time taking a long deep sniff of the aroma surrounding the kitchen. I giggled a bit causing her to smile. Then she began giggling too.

"Hey did you see the way Light's laid out on the chair in there?" she asked a wide grin on her face. I grinned wide too at that and snickered.

"Yeah, I saw him on my way down. He looks like a little baby curled up for a nap." Ajisai suddenly snorted.

"Well I'm not so surprised. That's been the boy's favourite chair since he was a young one. We'd always find him curled up and sleeping sound as the night whenever he was here." She chuckled to herself. "In fact, I have a family album full of pictures from when Light was just a wee one. Would you like to see?" We both nodded with excitement. I was so not passing up a chance to see a picture of baby Light. That was just too tempting since it was never shown in the series.

"Good then why don't you two sneak back into the living room and get my book down from the top shelf. Careful now not to wake anyone," she said with a whisper. We nodded vigorously and then tiptoe ran into the living room and since I was taller, I was the one who pulled out the book and thankfully didn't rouse Light or his mother in the process. We made our way back into the dining room and set it down on the table. A while later, Ajisai came in with the breakfast all ready and laid it out at the separate places for me, Sayu, Light, Mrs. Yagami and herself. Then we delved into the family photos.

A while later Mrs. Yagami entered the room and sat down to eat then started going over the photos with us happy to see me and Ajisai getting along for a change. Our laughter was what woke Light up and when he registered what we were doing at the breakfast table his face turned a different shade of red close to that of a poppy.

"What are you doing with those?!" he exclaimed embarrassed. Sayu and I giggled a bit while Ajisai just smiled.

"Why we're just taking a look at you taking a bath and reminiscing about the old days," she said smugly. His face reddened more. I went back to looking at baby Light Yagami trying to climb out of the bathtub while his mother was trying to rinse him off. Meanwhile Sayu had claimed the one of their father trying to teach Light how to be a cop while Light coloured in his police manual was her favourite. Truthfully I thought that one was funny too. I only wish I had baby photos of myself to show off so Light wouldn't feel so embarrassed. I remembered one of me covered in birthday cake at my first birthday and smiling gaily for the camera.

The rest of breakfast went on with Ajisai and Mrs. Yagami switching to pictures of Sayu's childhood days then flipping backwards to when they were young and mischievous girls. Once everyone was finished breakfast, Ajisai gave them more jobs to do. Today Mrs. Yagami and Sayu would be going down to the market in the nearby town to pick up some groceries while Light dealt with cleaning up the basement. I was surprised that hadn't been on my list yesterday. I was assigned to help Ajisai tend to her own room which I could understand why it wouldn't be on my previous list either. Once in she locked the door. Ryuk had floated in too as Ajisai had told him to join us and I watched as she set something on the dresser where there was space. She jabbed a thumb towards it.

"There, I understand you like apples so I baked you an apple pie. Go ahead try it," she gestured to the pie again. Ryuk floated to it looking slightly suspicious.

"What's the catch?" he questioned.

"There is none," Ajisai replied. "Just eat and enjoy. I promise it's good." Ryuk floated nearby reluctantly for a while longer but then just shrugged and dug in. Ajisai turned to me.

"Jeez, with the way he eats you'd think he grew up in a barn," she whispered to me. I giggled a bit. Ajisai led me over to a pair of chairs and got me to sit down. Looking around, there wasn't really much to do since she apparently kept her room clean on a regular basis. She sat behind me and picked up a brush from her dresser which was mine I realized and began brushing my hair. I didn't know what to think.

"Um, what're you…" I started.

"I was young when it happened, very young," she spoke cutting me off. "I believe I was about ten or twelve years old. Anyway, if you'd ask my sister, she would say I'd run away and hid for a few months. However, I was gone what seemed longer than that and not by my choosing." I became immediately confused.

"Uh, Aunt Ajisai what're you talking about?" I asked cautiously.

"It's the story of when the Cheshire chose me as his game piece," she replied. My eyes widened.

"You knew the cat?!" I exclaimed in surprise, my voice rising.

"Yes," she hissed. "Now keep it down. Light's still in the house. Now let me finish."

"Sorry," I whispered back. she continued brushing my hair and telling her story.

"Anyway, I was out exploring one day when all of a sudden I fell down a well. I had hit the bottom rather hard and knocked myself out. I'm pretty sure I had broken something as well. Well the next thing I knew I was waking up in a different place, a different time and a different world. If the magical creatures hadn't been enough to convince me it was the meeting with the cat that did. He followed me around and I was the only one who was able to see or hear him and I'll tell you he made me look quite the fool at the best of times. It was the same for every world I visited."

"Wait he sent you to more than one?" I asked a bit of panic rising in my voice. She nodded.

"Indeed he did. He sent me to worlds I'd never imagined before and worlds I'd only read about in stories and heard about in fairytales as a girl. My ages and the bodies I used were always my own yet altered in some way depending on where I would end up and in those places I had read about, I was able to change the story, not always for the better, I never got to always make the right calls. It was hard and by the time the cat was done with me, I had ended up back at the bottom of that well, injured but still able to climb out and go home.

"When I had seen my family again, the family I thought I'd never see again, I wept tears of absolute joy and all of a sudden I saw my life in a whole new perspective. The entire experience I'd gone through was never entirely bad but it was never entirely good either, in other words, I'd done some things in those worlds I'd regretted. Now listen to me, is this the first world you've visited by way of the Cheshire?" I was thrown off a bit by the question because quite frankly, I'd been quite worried after hearing her story.

"Y-yes," I answered. "This is the first time."

"I see," she replied. There was silence as Ryuk had already finished his apple pie and was licking his fingers and lips.

"So does this mean…that I'm going to be taken to other words too?" I asked frightened. I didn't like the idea of it. Already this world was enough to bear alone. I glanced over my shoulder to see Ajisai had stopped brushing my hair and had a faraway look in her eyes. For the longest time she didn't answer.

"Quite possibly," she finally said softly. And for once her age, the true age of going through so many worlds and spending who knows how much time in each, showed in every wrinkle collected upon her face. She continued on as if it was evening and we were supposed to be quiet to respect others trying to sleep around a campfire.

"Lila," she said, using my name for the first time since I'd been here. "This world is more than likely only the beginning of the cat's plans for you. He does this to more than enough souls you couldn't even count but when the time comes and believe me it will…you'll die and move on to the next world regardless of whether or not you're ready. Chances are you'll meet others who've been the cat's play things as I have in my travels and they will tell you the same story. But once you do die in this world, you'll be forever marked by the Cheshire's mark and in new places that will mean you'll be a target wherever you go. I'm not sure if there will be any in this world but there are some out there who despise the cat and some who will work for the cat's siblings, the other deities."

"You mean there are more?!" I yelled my voice shrill.

"Yes and not all of them like the cat and the cat does not like all of them. However, if there ever comes an affair where you'll have to be shared amongst them, it will probably be to take down one of them who they've ganged up on or a deity of their own kind but not at all related. The important thing to remember is this," she paused to make sure I was paying attention. "At times it will seem like we're nothing more than pawns in their game but we're just as important as they are. I can't say I agree with everything they do but whatever they do they do in the name of balance. I know It's hard to understand but it's one of the lessons you'll come to learn as you go along." I stood up then and began pacing about the room. Ryuk and Ajisai watched me as I went trying to put things together, trying to think.

Balance, death every time, every time a new world? It was too much, too much. Why did my afterlife have to be so damned complicated. I started throwing my arms around, beginning to speak then cutting myself off short. Finally I was able to say something.

"This is…this is just great! I mean every kid who's ever seen an anime, who's ever read a good story wishes he or she could be there. It runs in adults too doesn't it? That one wish where they could visit another world that wasn't their own and meet their favourite characters; have a nice little chit-chat." I threw back my head and laughed out loud. "Well I've got my wish haven't I? I've always wanted to be the villain, I've always wanted to play along with the storyline of one of those worlds and now here I am in one of those worlds I used to watch on the internet in my spare time. Did you know I devoted my entire life recently to watching anime's, reading manga? And all because I couldn't step outside of my shell around other people. I used to be so sheltered, I used to hide away from my siblings because to me they were just annoying little pests who I couldn't be bothered with and yet here I am in one of my favourite worlds, that's right I said favourite, nothing wrong with loving a story about a deranged serial killer as long as it's only cartoons, as long as it's not real life right?" I had to stop for a moment because I was beginning to hyperventilate again and I needed to calm my breathing.

Ajisai offered me a glass of water which had already been in the room. I drank it gratefully. My little bout had brought about tears which were now beginning to well up within my eyes and overflow. I took a deep breath. All the while Ryuk had remained quiet, not saying a word. I continued pacing.

"And now I'm here," I went on calmer now. "I'm here and every wish I'd once had of visiting someone else's world is a far away memory, in fact it's the exact opposite. Now I wish I could go home to my world, now I wish I hadn't allowed myself to be dragged out to that damned party when I should've been at home like my parents had wanted. I shouldn't have left them without saying goodbye at least, could that have been too much to ask for? And my siblings…they may be pests at times but they need me, I'm their older sister and…and I should've been there for them.

"You never know what you truly have until you've lost it do you?" I laughed again, a dry chuckle. "You know everyone's been so nice to me; they've even said that I'm a part of their family now. But how could they understand? I already have a family; a family who probably think I'm dead and it's like that nightmare you can find yourself in where you see the person you need to talk to but you have no voice. It's only different this time because I can't even see them either…but I know their alive. I just know it." I paused and before bursting into tears, I plopped myself face down on Ajisai's bed and sobbed, "And I'm the one who's dead!" I began sobbing uncontrollably.

The next thing I knew, Ajisai was crawling onto the bed and pulling me into a much needed hug. I continued sobbing for quite some time during which Light came up and knocked on the door to see if things were alright and to inform Ajisai he was done with the cleaning the basement. She sent him away to make lunch and brew some tea for me then afterwards, she sent him out to tell his mother and Sayu about something she forgot to put on their shopping list. Once he was gone and I'd cried for quite some time, I finally calmed myself down, breathing steadily instead of rapidly. Silence followed.

"So," I finally said. "Is dying how you were transferred every time?" Ajisai nodded.

"Yes, it was. Every time my time in a world was up, I would die." I swallowed.

"And when exactly does one die in a world?" I questioned. Ajisai thought for a moment before answering.

"When the task that has been set to be done is completed by the one chosen by the cat and the one knows how that one shall die." I took it in and tried to think.

"So even though it's not my choice, I'll have to know when it's time for me to die and how?"

"More or less," she replied.

"Well that sounds a bit morbid," Ryuk commented. I hadn't expected him to still be there. I'd assumed he'd left the room when I'd begun my episode but he remained where he was just floating and watching. I looked up at Ajisai.

"Do you know what my task is?" she shook her head no.

"As I said that information is only known by the cat and the one. It's not always known from the beginning but the one sooner or later figures it out. I speak from experience after all." I nodded.

"Then I guess there's no avoiding it," I started. "I was put in a position where I would be the one who picked up the book and now it's up to me what happens in this world. For better or for worse, I am now the main character. Speaking of which…" I looked up again at Ajisai now with a serious look on my face. I took a deep breath. "I know of many people in this world that would have been killed by the first Kira I saw on screen for getting in his way. However, I'm Kira now and I'm doing things my way. I want to just nudge them aside rather than throwing them off the board permanently so I was thinking…"

"Say no more," Ajisai lifter her hands. "I have no problem with helping a fellow Cheshire candidate. That prison block out there was originally built by the government to hold lab experiments prisoner. However the project was cancelled when the government of Japan found out what it was really for and he had it shut down and taken off the grid. Thanks to a friend of mine working on the inside I soon discovered that they'd completely destroyed the files of the place trying to forget what they'd almost done and so it was just sitting there collecting dust until I bought it from the government for myself.

"My friend helped me hook it up again to a natural power source I had created some years ago and so I've been going about, tidying the place up trying to figure out what I could do with it. I had been planning a private home or tomb for when I die again for real. I see no reason it can't hold a few innocents to keep them off your back and out of harm's way. It's better than offing them though anyway. Hell I'll even be the warden."

"You'd do that?" I asked surprised and yet relieved at the prospect that I didn't have to be completely alone in this anymore. She nodded.

"If you're planning to keep prisoners for a long amount of time then you'll need someone to keep a watchful eye on them and I know that prison like the back of my hand inside and out. I've got the blueprints. Not to mention they'll need exercise and they'll need food and water, fresh clothing and such. You can't just throw them in a cage n' leave em. That's how irresponsible kids kill their own pets." I smiled again and moved in for another hug. Then I pulled out.

"Thank you so much for everything," I exclaimed. She shrugged.

"Meh, it's the least I could do after getting us started off on the wrong foot." I nodded then turned to Ryuk.

"And you'll be helping out too right?" I asked hopeful. He scoffed at me.

"Heh, of course, you already made me swear I would and I want those apple delicacies you promised." I nodded once more. I exchanged glances with both of them smiling now and wiping a stray tear from my eye.

"Alright then it's time to get to planning because I already know who our first batch is gonna be." And with that the three of us began talking and writing out plans for the rest of the day. Aunt Ajisai even made time to start teaching me something new and rather useful. We ate dinner with the rest of the family and Ajisai gave me a special cellular phone in private that she'd managed to hang onto from her travels that would allow me to contact her and only her. She also assured me that she knew people who could help us who used to work on the dark side and knew how to keep their mouths shut. I agreed to trust her and after dessert, we departed leaving Ajisai's cottage home behind. There wasn't much talk on the way back as Light was still recovering from an earlier incident that day and we all needed sleep for school tomorrow morning.

Thanks to Ajisai's knowledge and brains, I'd gotten my own homework done in no time with her help during our time together so I had nothing to fear from the teacher in the morning. I also felt confident that now I could do more than I used to when I'd been restricted to just working by my lonesome as Kira alongside Ryuk. Now with her help, maybe I actually did stand more of a chance against L. Time would only tell and what Ajisai had taught me in those few short hours spent together in her room with Ryuk never leaving, I felt like I was finally ready for what was coming. In all honesty despite my better judgement, I just couldn't wait.

The day had started ordinarily. Ryuk had already told me about our follower the other day and when I'd ducked into the alleyway to check something out and told Light to continue home, I realized he was following Light more than me. _That could be a problem,_ I had thought.

The night before I had begged Light to take me to the amusement park and now I was waiting for him at the bus stop to hurry up with the purchase of our tickets. I finally saw him just as the bus turned the corner.

"Alright," he said. "I've got the tickets. Now remind me again why you all of a sudden wanted to go somewhere like Spaceland out of the blue?" I huffed a bit annoyed.

"To get away from all of the pressures of society and school work duh!" I said rolling my eyes. "Besides, you've been cooped up in your room practically all week since we got back from your Aunt's place last weekend and I thought you could use the fresh air. And it was either go with me or I would've convinced your mother to force you out." I bounced around anxiously on my feet as the bus pulled up beside us and Light gave a hefty sigh distinctly similar to a groan. I glanced up and could see that Raye Penber was following us just as I'd known he would. We boarded the bus and found our seats, Mr. Penber slipping in behind us as the bus started moving.

In retrospect if this had been following the original death note storyline, Light would've called up one of the girls from his school and took her on a supposed date. However, I'd felt this plan didn't need a third wheel and I definitely needed to be on the bus. I already knew that Raye Penber was souly following Light and not me which was really disconcerting considering the fact that he wasn't Kira this time and that he was innocent. I'd spent this week doing my homework in school on my lunch breaks and other breaks including the ones I took for the bathroom. Then at home I would finish the remainder and then move on to writing in my death note. Two days before this had been the day I'd written down the names of the inmates and had used the death note to control their actions before they died. However, I hadn't gone about it the same way Light had in the original series.

Instead of getting someone to draw a pentagram in blood which I myself couldn't draw, I had them draw just a random doodle with a marker swiped from a guard because I'd gotten bored of waiting for a better idea to pop into my head and had just drawn the first thing I'd come up with. Plus I hadn't liked the idea of blood writing on the wall. Nevertheless it would have the same effect of being completely useless. For the second guy I had gotten him to write the first nonsense letter with the secret message being, "Hey L, guess what?" as the first portion being readable horizontally across the top. I would give him the second portion to decipher later after the FBI incident had occurred. Finally with the third guy, I had him escape his cell and the prison he'd been in to roam around free and not get caught until I needed him. And as for the other three, they just simply died of heart attacks.

Although I had been opposed to it, the playing around with people's lives bit, I had secretly somewhat enjoyed it and had had no choice. Although it would initially be easier to just go after Raye Penber I felt I had to follow some of the original storyline. I had to get L thinking on new things to keep him from catching me faster. Plus the whole bus jacking incident which was soon to take place would be something I could use in the future if I needed it.

The bus soon slowed down after a while's drive to the stop where the hijacker would get on board. He came on casually, hands in his pockets but also with the look in his eyes that indicated he wasn't entirely in his right mind mostly due to the death note and my other method of control. Light tensed beside me; he was near the window since I needed to be on the isle side. I looked over at him and whispered, "What's up?" He was looking straight ahead at the man.

"Nothing," he paused. "I dunno, it's just, I thought I saw that guy a while ago on the news. He's supposed to have escaped a failed bank robbery and the cops after killing three people in the process." I tensed too, not because I was scared but because I hadn't expected him to notice. I could hear his heart begin to beat rapidly beside me. After what he'd been through in the past what with me getting us involved in a fight with thugs, him being jumped by a guy who had had a heart attack soon after and then last weekend while I'd been in Ajisai's room and he'd gone out, it'd been dark on his way back; a crazed man with a mental disorder who'd escaped from the mental institute had attacked him and grazed and cut him several times with a kitchen knife. Finally, even after the one farmer had tried to help, he'd ended up shooting the poor man accidentally in the head. Light had been splattered with the blood. That man was now facing trial in Japanese court and I already knew that he wasn't going to die on my watch even if he did end up in prison.

It seemed that all of a sudden me getting the death note instead of him had put him into harm's way more than once. At least in the original story he would've stood a chance, not that he hadn't tried to outsmart the mental case, but now it seemed the universe was out to get him because he'd been the original Kira. I knew right away that this was definitely going to faze him but I had no choice, the plan had already been set into motion. I glanced over at the man as if taking him in and turning back to Light.

"Oh come on," I said trying to make it sound like no big deal. "I'm pretty sure he's just an average citizen who's just here to ride the bus like everybody else." However, despite I was trying to calm him down and I already knew it was coming, I was still surprised when it was that moment the hijacker had chosen to start his little scene. I heard his gun click.

"Stay in your seats unless you wanna die!" he said in a loud voice while he pointed the gun at the bus driver's head. The driver tensed up as the passengers surrounding us began to panic including Light whom I could see begin to perspire as he glanced at me with an angry yet panicked glare that seemed to say, "You were saying?". I shrunk in my seat.

"Or maybe not," I squeaked out nervously. Despite the fact I had to keep up an act of innocence, I also had to keep up my concentration so I could effectively control the man's actions. I hadn't been able to write down exactly what Light had in the old series because it had never been clearly shown until after and it wasn't something I remembered. So I was also using the bus jacking incident as a test of my aura weaving abilities.

Back at Ajisai's she'd taught me some of the basics claiming I had a natural knack for it, that I just had to dig deeper and find it within myself. She'd explained to me aura natures and other techniques and she'd gotten me to practice with her late into the evening before dinner. I'd gotten fairly good with the practices she'd given me to work on over the week which was the other reason I did most of my homework in school. Mostly, my aura controlling abilities were controlled with my senses which meant they were still pretty weak at times but I was making progress. In fact I couldn't believe how easy it was to control another person's aura close to me once I'd infected them with my own. So now I was controlling a hijacker with my aura and the powers of the death note combined.

The man turned to look at the back seats. "Everybody shut up!" he shouted. "If anybody moves I'm puttin' a bullet in their head." I could hear the previously gasping and worried passengers quiet themselves down. Light was shaking next to me, probably still shaken by what'd happened last weekend. I eyed the man and watched as he turned to make his demands.

"Alright driver," he said. "You listen to me. I know you got the number for Spaceland's office on ya. Call em!" he ordered. The driver shakily reached for the phone nearby and did as he was told.

"This…this is Sasaki," said the bus driver nervously. "I'm calling from bus one seven four."

"Tell them what's happening," ordered the man. "Tell them what's going on and no tricks either!" The bus driver shook as he spoke.

"My…my bus has been hijacked…and he's holding a gun to my head." It was at this point the man reached forward and took the phone from the driver.

"Gimme that!" he growled as he took it. "You heard what he said now you listen up. Have a female staff member bring all of Spaceland's cash from yesterday. I know it's there!" he shouted into the phone. "Have her meet us two bus stops from the park and don't make me wait. If you mess with me at all, or try to get the police involved, I swear I'll kill every one of these passengers!" And with that he yanked the cord from its place so the driver couldn't use it again and threw it on the floor, smashing it with his foot for good measure. Light was still shaking beside me and I could hear him mutter something under his breath.

"Please, please don't let this be happening. Oh god what have I done to deserve this streak of misfortune?" I placed a comforting hand his and looked at me, trying to pull a mask of no emotion on so as not to frighten me but on the contrary it wasn't I that wasn't so frightened as him.

"Hey, it's okay," I whispered, loud enough only for Mr. Penber to hear me in the back. "I've got this." Light looked at me alarmed.

"What the hell are you thinking Lila?" he asked panicked. I lowered my voice some, causing Mr. Penber to lean in closer to listen without drawing attention to himself. I looked up at the guy pacing and made sure, using my aura against his that he wouldn't look this way. I looked back to Light.

"It's simple. I'll cause a distraction and get him close to me then when he least expects it I'll jump him and take the gun. Then I can beat him up karate kid style." He paled at the idea.

"That's a beyond stupid idea Lila," he whispered. "You'll get someone killed if he fires in anxiety after you jump him. That's not smart."

"Well it's better than just sitting here," I argued. He tried to come up with something else to say but Raye Penber beat him to it.

"Hey, I think you should listen to your friend here," he stated quietly. "It's not only stupid no offense but risky. If it should come down to that, I'll take care of it." Light and I gave each other a look. Then he looked back at the man with a strict look of accusing on his face.

"And why should we trust you?" he asked quietly. "For all we know you could be an accomplice." I was surprised he made the same accusation as he had before. But I couldn't think about that so I just played along.

"Accomplice?" I questioned unbelieving. "How on earth could he be an accomplice?" Light turned to me and explained in a serious tone.

"I've read about it before," he paused giving Raye another look then back to me. "The first hijacker comes in like he's working alone while meanwhile the second one pretends to be a hostage sitting in the back seat just in case something goes wrong." I rolled my eyes. A little boy who'd been sitting in front of us turned around with his sister to look at us with worry. I made sure the man didn't notice.

"Is that true mister?" asked the boy, scared out of his mind. He looked like he could be maybe six or seven. The girl shifted beside him then looked back up to the man and hid some behind the back of her seat.

"Then is he a bad guy too?" she wondered. Raye looked like he was about to be caught. I knew that wasn't the case. I rolled my eyes again.

"Oh please, he's not an accomplice. Leave the poor man alone." Light looked up front again at the man walking around like he owned the place and scaring some of the other passengers in the front.

"How do you know?" Light asked skeptically. I sighed.

"Yeah, do you know everything or something?" taunted the boy in the front. I huffed again.

"No, I just know that you're all paranoid," I said pointedly at Light. Light just looked the other way. Raye Leaned forward.

"Here, if it makes you feel any better, here's my proof," he said passing up his identification. Light took it looking a bit surprised and let me and the kids see it too.

"Wow," the two said in unison as they took in the badge. I looked at it letting a naturally quizzical look come over my face as Light handed it back to Penber.

"Okay," he sighed. "So you're not an accomplice but what's and FBI agent doing on a bus to Spaceland in Japan?" he asked suspiciously.

"Uh duh," said the boy up front. "He's here to take that guy to jail." He pointed up at the hijacker. His parents noticed.

"Hey you two," I heard a female voice hiss. "Turn around and sit down before you get yourselves killed!" The two listened to their parents with an "Aww," and did as instructed. I looked over at Light.

"Personally I don't wanna get involved with the FBI and their affairs because who knows what they'd do to us if we found out something top secret? Can't we just accept he's on his way to work or something and let it drop for the time being regardless of how suspicious it is he sat behind us?" I begged Light. He caved and sighed. He glanced back over his shoulder.

"I'll trust you for now okay, but after I want answers you got that?" he spoke briskly. Penber nodded. "And," Light continued under his breath to me, "I'll be reporting this to my father." I felt a bit uneasy at that but I'd talk to him as soon as it was over.

"Shut up you old hag!" I suddenly heard from up front. The hijacker had made his way to the elderly couple sitting just a few seats in front of us diagonally. The old woman was shaking as the gun was pointed at her and she leaned into her husband for safety. "Do you want me to shoot you right now!" he yelled. _Now's the moment,_ I thought. I placed my hand into my pocket and drew out a pen and paper and began fiddling with it, seeming nervous. Then I "accidentally dropped it and went for it using my aura to turn the guy's attention on me. He reacted immediately.

"Hey don't move you little bitch!" he shouted at me. He came at me and I froze and I could feel Light do the same beside me. Although I knew what would happen, my heart still pounded with adrenaline and my face turned red.

"What the hell is that!" he yelled coming up closer. He bent over and picked it up as I slowly eased myself up a bit my arm still slightly extended. I was shaking with adrenaline now which helped with the act. He turned to me and Light.

"Ah, smartass!" he exclaimed glaring. "You bastards were planning something back here weren't ya!" he stated accusingly.

"No we," Light tried but the gun was pointed at him now and he tensed again.

"Shut up wise guy!" the man yelled back. Light looked to me for help but I made the guy notice with my aura by accident and he began switching back and forth from the both of us with the gun. I timed it just right as he went to point at Light again. I jumped him, grabbing his hand with the gun in it.

"Hey!" he shouted angrily. "What do you think you're doing!" I loosened his grip on the gun using my own strength and aura and let it drop to the ground. Then I rode him around like a bucking bronco with him yelling at me, threating me and trying to throw me off. In a way it was actually kind of fun. However, I couldn't hold on forever or so it could be seen despite all of the cheering that was coming from some of the passengers. As he turned around again I shouted out.

"Now would be a good time for some "Special" help!" I shouted as I was tossed around like a rag doll. Taking this as his cue, Raye Penber approached us quickly but carefully as possible. Then he yelled at me to jump off and I did as he performed a perfect axel kick to bring the guy's feet and legs out from under him. The hijacker hit the floor hard but not so hard as I still needed him conscious. He started standing up and I began prancing back and forth on my feet.

"You…you can't win," he stuttered out of breath. I smirked.

"Well maybe next time you shouldn't try hijacking a bus with a black belt and an officer on board." I turned to Raye Penber and winked. He gave a half -hearted smile. We both approached him as he backed up, I could see he was about to go for the driver again but unfortunately for him as it had been written, he started seizing up and his body started acting strange and lifting into the air, with a little help from some aura weaving I hadn't expected to be capable of. I was now in full control of his aura.

After he was up, it was hard to look surprised and stay focused at the same time. Everyone watched as the "Mysterious force" threw him about for a while then finally dropped him back in front of the piece of paper he'd dropped after I'd jumped him; the same paper I'd had him pick up earlier. As he tried to get up, he watched as the paper began to unfold in front of him by itself. The girl who'd been sitting in front of us pointed.

"Look mommy," she said. "Magic!" her eyes were filled with wonderment. After the paper unfolded the picture I'd drawn became exposed and the man began to freak out a bit.

"What…what's happening!?" he cried out. The picture I'd drawn was the image of and apple with a face grinning maliciously, devil horns and a pitchfork. That was Ryuk's cue.

"Why hello there mister," he said casually from the back of the bus. The man jumped back in utter horror.

"Who the hell are you!?" he shouted out. I swore I could've seen Ryuk's grin widen.

"My name's Ryuk," Ryuk said. "I'm what you humans would call a Shinigami, that is to say, a god of death."

"A…a god of death?" the man stuttered. Everyone who heard him became utterly confused. I leaned over to Raye with a hand cupped on the side of my mouth.

"So um…who's he talking too?" I questioned pretending to be confused like everyone else. Raye leaned over to respond.

"I'm not sure. A god of death according to what he just said but I assume he's just hallucinating." I nodded accepting that as an answer. Ryuk continued speaking to the man.

"That's right," he confirmed. "I'm a god of death. Don't think you can get any help by the way. After all, we only appear to those who're about to die so nobody else can see me; nobody else can hear me. If you want proof of that then look around at all of the people. They're more terrified now because you're practically talking to air. Nothing's scarier than a crook gone mental." He snickered and I could tell he was enjoying this all too much. The man looked on in fear, shivering before the monster before him.

"However I'm not here to make fun of you no," he went on. "I'm simply here to deliver a message from my master. I believe you've heard of the world's newest celebrity Kira no?" The man glanced his gun then in the next few seconds, he'd swiped it up and was on his feet pointing it at Ryuk. Ryuk looked amused.

"What're you doing there champ?" he questioned mockingly. The man trembled and backed away some. I followed Penber's lead as we moved in to grab the man slowly.

"Look, I don't care what you are an' I don't care what you're buddy Kira wants. I'm not dyin' today!" At the mention of Kira's name everyone tensed up. It was almost Taboo. Ryuk snickered.

"I'm afraid you can't escape it. Things have already been set in motion, your name has already been written." He began to approach the man just as we'd planned and that was when he lost it.

"St…stay away," he stammered. Ryuk continued forward. "I said stay away!" And he raised his gun. Recognizing danger, Raye shouted out.

"Everybody down!" Everyone ducked as the bullets went flying. They didn't work though, they just when through Ryuk and hit the back window until it broke. Ryuk still moved.

"The message from Kira is this," he stated. The man yelped then pulled the trigger again but realized he'd used up all of the ammo. Too frightened to do anything else, he decided his hijacking attempt was futile and fled to the bus driver ordering him to let him off. The bus skidded to a halt and hit the curb as it stopped and he ran out the open doors as Ryuk finished his message with a wide scary grin.

"Kira says your time has come. Die!" And as the man's feet hit pavement, a car skidded, trying to stop. It hit him in the side and flung him sideways and spinning on his rear and before her could get up, his hand went to his chest as the heart attack finally kicked in and ended his life. Despite the fact that I hadn't been as unforgiving as the first Kira and had sent him flying rather than the car hitting him in the head, I still couldn't bear to watch. This time I had been present at the actual death and it was like my three friends in the car all over again. I turned away.

I waited a week before I made my move on Raye Penber. I hadn't really needed to see his ID but it'd still worked out the way it was supposed to although, as I'd Predicted, Light was a little more than shaken after the whole incident. In fact he was also on fire with new ideas that could possibly lead to capturing of Kira. Despite the fact I'd made him promise not to tell his mom or dad because of the FBI agent and my own "paranoia" of them busting into our house to take us away for questioning, he'd still kept at trying to solve the case privately in his room. If anything I could tell he really wanted to be a policeman someday.

On the day before I had called Aunt Ajisai and told her it was time so she was in the city by the time I had already made my way down to the subway station. I stood casually swaying to and fro waiting for him to show up while Ryuk discreetly downed an apple.

"So," Ryuk started through bits of apple. "Are you positive he'll come through here?" he asked casually. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, this is the place he came through in the series and I know how to handle it. Just wait until it's your cue."

"Heh, fine!" he snapped back. "You don't have to treat me like your servant."

"Actually yes I do," I replied annoyed. "Remember that's the whole angle we're playing here if we want it to work." As soon as I finished I spotted him coming down the stairs to the terminal, a briefcase in his hand. I clutched the envelope in my right hand.

"There ya see," I said to Ryuk. "No worries, he's here. Now stop griping and let's get going already. It's time for the show to begin." I pulled up my hood over my head then a scarf which hid a voice disruptor inside, up over my mouth. It would make my voice sound male and that was what I wanted. If I could keep them guessing Kira was a guy without suspecting Light then it would be a win for me. I would only show my face to those who were in my prison when I decided to make an appearance. For now though, the art of deception was one of my biggest weapons. I put on some sun glasses too and some gloves.

After he walked pass me I took a deep breath and followed up close behind him. Then I spoke, my voice gravelly through the distorter.

"Mr. Raye Penber," I started; my voice sounding masculine. He stopped as though to turn around but I stopped him from doing so. "Turn around and you die!" He froze instantly. I grinned slightly adrenaline beginning to pump through my veins.

"What's going on," he said. "Who are you?" I grinned more. The part of me that had always wanted to do this before began bubbling up but I kept it together.

"I'm glad you asked," I said smugly through the distorter. "I'm the one who's taken on quite the attention in the world. Some would call me injustice, others a savior. Some would call me a murderer, others a righteous judge of the people. But allow me to make myself quite clear, I'm neither a god nor a devil, I'm merely a human who possesses the power to kill with just the flick of my fingers by only needing to know someone's name and face." He tensed, I grinned. "I am the one and only Kira!"

In front of me, I could tell he was beginning to sweat. And I could tell his heartrate was picking up as his eyes widened. I licked my dry lips, a habit I had when I was slightly nervous. My own heart was beating faster.

"That's right," I assured him. "I am Kira and I know both your name and your face Mr. Penber. Turn around or reach for a weapon concealed anywhere on your person and I won't hesitate to kill you right here and now. You wouldn't want your fiancée to find out you've been killed do you?" I questioned with a sneer.

"How'd you know about her?" he asked frantically.

"Who, Naomi Misora?" I said teasingly. "Why I make it a habit to make sure I know all about the people hired to try and find me Mr. Penber. That means I know about all of your family and hers. If you so much as make one wrong move, not only will I kill you but I can hurt them as well. Your fiancée used to work in the FBI correct?"

"What…what are you getting at?" he asked. "What do you want and how do I know you're not just pulling my leg?" He was desperate to find an opening but I wouldn't let him.

"What am I getting at?" I repeated mockingly. "What do I want and how do you know? Why it's quite simple. What I'm trying to do is to cleanse this world of all of the trash that lives in it and what I'm getting at is that I can really kill with just a face and a name." At that precise moment, a shout came from behind us as a man ran down the stairs into the terminal being closely pursued by security. It was the same man who I'd had escape from prison earlier and he was running at us now. I grinned again.

"As to prove that, see that man coming at us now?" Penber was hesitant in answering.

"Y-yes. I see him." Then he realized something. "Isn't that the man who escaped prison when you…"

"Yes it is," I confirmed. "You see all I had to do was write down his name and then every event leading here. He's going to die soon just you wait and see. While his buddies died in prison, I adjusted the time of his death to be today in this very underground terminal." Penber got anxious.

"Wait a minute, don't do it!" As soon as he said those words of protest the man before us seized up and had his heart attack just as the security guards and police now caught up to him. However, he was dead before he hit the ground. I had closed my eyes still disturbed at the sight of death before me and took a deep breath.

"What the," Penber started. "How did…what did…" he couldn't form the words. He was too much in shock. He now knew I was for real and there was no escaping that. Finally he said something.

"I have a question for you," he began. I was curious with what he had to say.

"Yes?" He took a deep breath.

"Last week, there was a man who died in a bus jacking incident. He was a burglar who wanted the money from Spaceland. Before he got off the bus he had a hallucination and mentioned something about a god of death and your name. Then he got off the bus and got hit by a car. Tell me, was what happened your doing?" I paused before continuing.

"Why of course. The circumstances for his death were similar to this man's." I nodded indicating the man who now lay dead on the floor. "However, I don't recall a god of death. Perhaps it was all just a hallucination." He nodded accepting that as my answer. I then tapped him with the envelope in my hand. He looked down.

"Take it," I ordered. He did. "Good, now inside you'll find a transceiver. You're to put the earpiece in your ear. I already know you don't have the information I need at the moment so for now you'll follow my instructions from a distance. I'll explain what the papers are for later. Now just continue on your merry little way." With that I slipped away and watched as he made his way to the lower train terminals. He'd already put the earpiece in his ear. Once he was on the right level, I began phase two.

"Mr. Penber," I started, speaking into my own transceiver. "If you can hear me then reply but make it discreet. No one can see you." I watched as Ray put the mouth piece into his coat, walked a while then spoke back to me.

"Yes I hear you." He confirmed. I smiled at Ryuk as I followed him.

"Good then listen closely. Board the Yamanote line either the inner or outer route, it doesn't really matter. Make sure you get the seat nearest the door. If it's occupied then wait until it's free then sit. Remember I will be close by and watching you at all times. Any slip ups, any looking around for my whereabouts and your girlfriend is first. Understand?"

"Yes," he replied straight forward. He boarded the train and I followed making sure to conceal myself in the car ahead of him. I hid myself in the corner as I'd seen Light do before, watching him from my position. I had to wait until the seat was occupied by Penber in order to start. Once I was sure he was seated and not looking about. I began.

"Good, we're doing great so far aren't we? Now I'm going to ask you a question and you're going to give me an honest answer because if not, I have Naomi's name right here. Now how many FBI agents are currently stationed in Japan? Speak clearly, discreetly and quietly." I watched as he brought his coat collar up to answer.

"I believe it's four teams, three agents per team for a total of twelve agents," he said sternly.

"Okay, good," I replied coyly. "Now take the papers out of the envelope." He did, looking a bit puzzled at the blank slots. No doubt he was asking questions mentally.

"Now of those twelve agents you just mentioned, write the name of the one heading the investigation at the top in the space provided. Then pull out your lap top. You should receive an email with a file attachment containing the information regarding every FBI agent stationed here in Japan and in New York City."

Raye's eyes widened as he realized I'd been right. I'd already assumed since L. had promised already to investigate both Japan and New York although Japan was his safer bet, he would've stationed agents there as well.

"Now wright down every name you see there. Then on the extra sheet, write your access code to your laptop and email address password and user name. Place the papers and transceiver back in the envelope and the envelope into your computer bag along with your laptop. You're to leave both on the rack above your head." He held a questioning look on his face as he did so.

"Okay, now stay in your seat and ride the train for another thirty to forty minutes. You're not allowed to leave the train until after you're certain no one will notice you getting off without your laptop case." He sat there and I stood in the other car waiting for a little while longer. Almost an hour had gone by when it was finally time for us to disembark. As soon as he was off the train, I followed grabbing his laptop along the way. I waited until we were in a place with no cameras to come up behind him again.

"Good job Mr. Penber," I said. He tensed once more. "You're really good at taking orders. Now it's time to say goodbye. Ryuk…take him away." At this Raye Penber whirled around to see the hideous deformed Shinigami before him. His eyes widened in fear as he backed away in shock. He ran into the wall. He glanced at me but couldn't see my face clearly through the sunglasses and the scarf and hood. My clothes were too baggy for him to see my breasts and so were my pants and my sneakers looked worn and torn. I placed my gloved hands in my sweater pockets. Ryuk approached him.

"Mr. Penber," he said in his gravelly voice. "It'd be best for everyone if you followed me now. Don't try calling for help though; no one will believe you because right now the only ones who can see and hear me are you and master Kira himself. Come quietly and no harm shall come to you or your loved ones." Penber looked frantic.

"How…how do I know I can trust you?!" he shouted.

"If I were you Mr. Penber I'd keep my voice down," I said with the distorted voice still activated. "We wouldn't want to attract any unwanted attention now would we?" I paused a moment then sighed. "Look I'm not going to kill you or your girlfriend or family. Sometimes you need to push someone to the edge before they'll do what you want and in this case with an FBI agent such as yourself, special measures had to be taken. You have my word no harm will come to them but in the meantime, I need you to disappear. Your death has already been faked and recognized by the police by one of my other partners. That same partner will be taking you to a safe and secure location. You'll remain there until my mission is complete and the world cleansed of the rot that has collected within it and…of myself." With that I handed the laptop to Ryuk and turned swiftly on my heel and walked away. "Farewell Raye Penber!"

"Wait!" Penber yelled after me but Ryuk moved in. After a while, I glanced back to see Raye Penber followed Ryuk. He would follow him to the place where Ajisai was waiting in the car. There he would be handcuffed and blindfolded then taken to the prison. Ajisai would put him in with a guard posted, someone working on our side from the town and then throughout the rest of the evening, Ryuk and Ajisai would take all of the agents including their bosses from their places of residence and lock them up. Ryuk would personally fly over the ones from New York City. We were lucky he didn't tire easily. All I had to do now was wait.

 _L._

I sat in my usual crouched position, eating my favourite kind of cake while thinking about the only thing that was ever on my mind these days. Kira! He'd begun killing criminals not too long ago and was clearly an amateur; at first anyway.

Recently he'd proven very difficult to read, getting into the police secret files and causing my suspicions about the task force already assembled. However, I had already had many suspicions since the beginning. Then there was the bus jacking incident. Bystanders say the man had been hit by a car after running off the bus but beforehand the people on the bus had said he'd been speaking to an imaginary Shinigami and had mentioned Kira's name. Then when the test results came in from the autopsy, they'd said the man hadn't been really that injured from the car since it only hit him in the lower regions but rather he died of a heart attack soon after.

Then there was the incident with the FBI agents from both Japan and New York at the same time only this time the results of the autopsy although declared sufficient seemed questionable when I'd seen them and when I'd asked for a re-run they'd all said the bodies of the agents including their commanding officers had disintegrated leaving behind no trace of evidence. The question I'd asked myself was why Kira would need to disintegrate these bodies of FBI agents when he hadn't done so with the other victims. Could it be because they'd been officers in the line of duty and deserved a proper sendoff in his mind's eye? Or was it some other motive. Either way, it was a big change in the recent patterns.

I finished my cake then went back to looking over the photos sent in from the men's deaths at the prison and the one that had occurred outside. There had been a randomly drawn cartoon cake with devil horns, a maliciously grinning face and a pitchfork. I tried to put the two together but couldn't. The note was a bunch of jumbled up song lyrics and nothing more. I sighed heavily and twisted my head sideways to scratch an itchy spot that had formed on the back of my neck. That's when I saw it.

The message. It said, _"_ _Hey L guess what?"_ then the second note which had just come in earlier from Watari. My eyes widened as I read it and I broke out into a cold sweat. The entire message put together said, " _Hey L. guess what? I love cake too!"_

"Um, so what's with the family meeting dad?" Sayu asked her father. We were all seated around the table as Mr. Yagami had called us all to a meeting. I sat beside Sayu and our attention was on Mr. Yagami. He sighed and got right to it.

"I figured you're going to find out sooner or later so I might as well tell you now," he began. "I don't want you to be alarmed. I'm sure you've heard of this Kira investigation." He took a breath. "Well I'm currently in charge of it." Sayu immediately sat up.

"What are you serious?" she asked eyes sparkling. "That's totally awesome dad. You're the best cop ever!" she said excitedly. Mr. Yagami sighed again.

"That's not quite the point I'm trying to make," he stated. "You see the truth is the FBI sent twelve of its agents to Japan to assist us in finding Kira and all of them were killed yesterday." Now the whole family looked at Mr. Yagami with the utmost concern including me. I glanced at Light who had tensed up and turned slightly pale.

"Are you saying they were all killed by Kira?" he questioned. While in the original series he would've been putting on an act, I could see that Light was genuinely concerned for his father. Of course this time he didn't have the reassurance from himself because he was Kira nor did he have the knowledge of the fact that those same FBI agents were all going to be locked up and cozy in a secure prison. I felt sort of guilty. His father nodded solemnly at the question.

"Yes, all of them…and the ones who were working on finding Kira in New York City." I sat back and wondered at that, at how Ajisai had pulled off the fake deaths in New York and Japan at the same time. I supposed I would ask her when I saw her next.

"At any rate," Mr. Yagami continued. "What I'm trying to say is that there's a chance Kira will actually try to kill anyone who comes after him. His crimes are ruthless and more frightening than anything we've ever seen in all our years. Many Detectives have already quit as it is."

"Dad you should quit too," pleaded a now worried Sayu. "I don't want you to die what if he gets you?" I decided I better not be quiet through all of this. In truth I actually was worried for him. I didn't know what the future held for any of us. All I had was the knowledge from watching the anime.

"Sayu's right Mr. Yagami, you shouldn't have to put your life at risk. This act shows that Kira's serious about whatever he's planning to do. He might already be planning his next move."

"Yes, that's true. Your life is so much more important than some job," agreed Mrs. Yagami. She placed a worried hand on her husband's arm. I watched and waited to see what would happen.

"I can't," Mr. Yagami said plainly. "I could never forgive myself if I walked away from this. I will not sit back and let evil triumph!" I winced slightly at being called evil. I could agree that what I was doing was evil but I wasn't an evil person.

"But dad you…" started Sayu.

"Please dear?" pleaded Mrs. Yagami. Light looked down hard at the table while I just looked away. From out of nowhere Light slammed his fist down on the table catching everyone by surprise, especially me.

"Light," Mrs. Yagami tried to scold but Light cut her off.

"Let me help you," he demanded looking straight and determined right at his father. His father looker even more surprised. "Please dad," he continued. "Let me help you on this case. I've helped you and the police before so let me help again. You shouldn't have to be the only one risking your life!"

"Light," his mother said again, this time as a mother trying to calm down her baby. Mr. Yagami meanwhile had regained his composure.

"Absolutely not!" he replied flatly.

"Why not, is it because of me almost dying four times, is that it? Because I'm fine dad I really am and I've never felt more sure of myself than I do right now!" I was glad that I was sitting on the opposite side of Sayu instead of right next to Light. He seemed rather tipsy like he might go off at any moment. Sayu could sense this too and edged away from him slightly every few seconds.

"It has nothing to do with that," Mr. Yagami assured him. "It just has everything to do with, you're my son and I don't want anything to happen to you or anyone else in this family."

"And so we should just let it happen to you instead? Do you know how serious this is? The other day Lila and I were on a bus that got hijacked and we were already threatened by the guy who did it before he went loopy talking about Shinigami and Kira! There was an FBI agent named Raye Penber on that bus and he died yesterday, a week from that day!" Mr. Yagami stood up as his son had done, now a new sense of worry on his face.

"Why didn't you tell me about this when it happened?" he demanded.

"And why wasn't I informed either?" Mrs. Yagami joined in. The two weren't just eying Light now, now they were eying the both of us. I shrunk into my seat wishing that Light hadn't just brought that up.

"Lila persuaded me not to because the man didn't want us to give away his identity. The point is Kira could've been watching that bus, could've gotten information on the one the FBI agent was following which was probably Lila and me. The FBI were hired by L. the great detective weren't they to investigate the police force. I've already seen that Kira's been suspected of being a student."

"You've hacked into my police files!" Mr. Yagami was raising his voice now. "Light that was the reason for bringing the FBI in, in the first place because Kira had access to police files, do you realize this puts you on the spot for being a suspect?" he roared.

"Well how else am I supposed to search for my own leads? How else am I supposed to make sure you're safe? I've seen what Kira can do dad, twice! It's never been good and I know just how scary he can be."

"So you've already been "helping" without permission, is that it? God damn it Light, you're not supposed to put yourself in harm's way like this!" Mr. Yagami threw his hand up and pinched the bridge of his nose trying to think.

"And why not? I've already said I've almost died four times. You already know about the punks me and Lila encountered then the guy who tried to jump me and then the time at Ajisai's place and now you know about the fourth. I know this Kira is a serious man dad but so am I and I will not rest easy until this case is solved!"

"Light you're supposed to finish school and move up the ranks first before you can take on this kind of dangerous responsibility. You've got a promising future ahead of you and you want to throw it away on a whim? I won't allow it!"

"Dad I," Light tried to begin again but his father cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"No!" he said firmly. "You're not allowed to work on this case and that's final. Now I want you to go upstairs and transfer everything from the Kira case from your computer back onto mine. I'll be changing up the codes so you can't breach it again and if I find you have, you'll be grounded longer than you are now."

"But…"

"Now!" Mr. Yagami yelled. Then there fell an eerie silence that rested what seemed forever on the dining room scene. Finally Light already risen from the table due to the intensity of the fight, pushed in his chair and turned on his heel.

"Goodnight," he said bitterly and stalked out of the room and up the stairs. The sound of his closing door was all that could be heard in the silence that followed. Finally Mrs. Yagami turned to Sayu.

"Sayu dear why don't you head up and get ready for bead? It's late." Sayu didn't argue against it even though it wasn't her bedtime yet.

"Okay, goodnight mom." She leaned over and hugged her mom. Then she went over and hugged her father. "Goodnight dad." Mr. Yagami wrapped one arm around his daughter while he still held the bridge of his nose thinking.

"Goodnight dear," he replied distractedly. Sayu left and went upstairs. Mr. Yagami all of sudden turned to me still slightly peeved. "And what about you?" he snapped. I winced.

"Dear!" Mrs. Yagami tried to scold. I looked up at Mr. Yagami still standing above me. He ignored his wife.

"Have you anything to say for yourself about this new development concerning the bus jacking and FBI agent?" Although I knew he didn't know I was Kira and the whole thing had been my fault, it sure felt he was demanding an explanation for just that. I just sat up and decided to tell him what I could.

"Well, I didn't expect it to happen," I tried. He sat down again, diagonally across from me.

"Nice try," he said. "Let's try again. Tell me everything." Silence followed then I gave a long sigh and settled into my chair again. I told him everything as he'd requested from the moment we got on the bus and Raye Penber had sat down behind us to me jumping the hijacker and then finally the hijacker, after being swung around the air like a rag doll and totally losing his mind; had mentioned a Shinigami and Kira's name then jumped off the bus and into the way of an oncoming car that had hit him and sent him flying.

"Afterwards even though it didn't look that bad and he could still sort of move somehow, he just upped and died right there. It was surprising for all of us. Then the FBI agent told us not to tell anybody of the incident because he was supposed to be undercover. So I made Light agree even though he wanted to tell you because I thought if we made the wrong move, they'd end up towing us away later and questioning us underground or something." I shrugged, not really sure of what to say next. Mr. Yagami just sighed.

"Alright Lila, that's all I needed to know. Next time though, tell me about these things sooner and don't keep secrets. With a Kira incident being that close to you, I'd hate to see what would happen if he started taking hostages related to the task force." I nodded with understanding. Mrs. Yagami came up behind me and patted me on the shoulder.

"Maybe you should go up to bed too Lila," she suggested. "That way tomorrow morning you can get an early start." I nodded again and headed up the stairs. I groaned and reached back to rub my neck.

"Man this whole thing is a pain," I complained as I went up remembering that Ryuk was still out busily helping Ajisai secure the prisoners. I knew he wouldn't come back until he'd eaten his fill of payment she'd prepared for him after lugging a bunch of humans across the ocean. Luckily he was able to go supernaturally fast otherwise he would've gotten bored already and given up.

I reached my door and sighed to myself as I turned the handle. "Oh well, once everything is finally settled here, I'll finally be able to put this nightmare behind me!" I exclaimed.

"And what nightmare would that be?" Said a cold voice from across the room. I snapped my head up and saw that Light was sitting across from me in my own room, in my computer chair. His legs were crossed and he didn't look too happy. In fact he was giving me the same look he would've had if he'd been the Light who was Kira. The look made me really worried but that was nothing. The lamplight was on behind him on my desk and it illuminated his back and what he was holding in his right hand. I froze when I saw what it was in the utmost horror.

At that moment of one fact I was perfectly and horrifyingly aware. Light Yagami was in my room and he had found and was holding my death note.


	5. Author's Note

**AN/**

 _Hello readers and thank you all for reading, favouriting and reviewing. Before you continue, I feel I should let you all know that making excuses for not posting is not something I'm going to make a habit of. However, since you undoubtedly wish to continue, I will tell you this. I am a University Student and although my major is theatre, I still have other important work to be done as well, I'm certain most of you out there also understand that writing any kind of creative story takes time when there are road blocks along the way. As well, I feel I should mention to those of you who haven't read my profile and are just following the story, this story "I AM Kira" is only the first story within the installment of The Lila Ranger Chronicles. That Means that even after this world is done, Lila will be moving along, courtesy of the Cheshire to other worlds she's viewed. I won't give away which Chronicles come next as I don't wish to spoil it but for those who grow to love the character of Lila, you might want to consider reading them in order if you wish to get a better view of where the story as series is headed. You don't have to have seen or know too much about every world, just know that I'll try my best to explain the previous world in detail throughout the story as best as I can. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it and I'm sorry if this author's note has turned more into a novel. Anyways, you are free to continue on reading now and I hope you like the next chapter as much as you liked the previous ones._


	6. Chapter 4 (A New Suspect!)

**_Chapter 4_**

 ** _(New Suspect!)_**

 _Soichiro Yagami_

I walked into headquarters that morning with a heavy heart. Today we would lose men to Kira but not by death of person but rather by death of the will to fight. I knew what had to be said and that once it had been said, they would be gone and only those who remained would truly be risking their lives. And so it was that I told them all the horrible truth about Kira.

"We now know that Kira doesn't just target criminals but that he'll kill anyone who opposes him," I started. "It's quite possible that we may all be killed by Kira." I paused a moment to allow it to sink in. What remained of the task force began to look quite nervous but they maintained their composure.

"Think of your own lives; think of your families and all the others you'd be leaving behind." I watched them as they did so then sighed leaning my head forward to lock them all in my gaze. They watched and now knew I was absolutely serious. "If anyone wants to leave this investigation then now's the time. You won't be demoted if you choose not to stay; you have my word," I promised them. Some seemed rather relieved.

"But," I continued. "If you're not absolutely sure then we don't need you. You have to willing to fight against him even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice." A slight pause to allow time for it to register then, "That is all," I concluded. With that, I closed my eyes and waited. As what had been said was processed then discussed, some shuffling occurred and soon the door of the room was opening and closing as many, possibly all of the bodies in the room, upped and walked away. Finally I opened my eyes to see only a few of the original Japanese task force remaining including Watari with L on computer and of course myself. I gazed at them with a still serious expression.

"Five men huh? Well six including myself," I looked down tiredly, thankful for their continued bravery then expressed it. "Still I'm grateful to see there are as many as five of you willing to risk your lives to face this evil, especially since after the FBI incident the investigators in New York refused to continue. So now it's just us here in Japan." There was a short silence in which I began collecting my thoughts. However it was slightly hard as I was still disturbed by the fight I'd had with my only son last night and Lila's story. I knew I was going to have to tell them.

"The fact that you have chosen to stay means that you have a strong sense of justice. I trust all of you," said L suddenly catching everybody off guard.

"Huh, hold on a second," stammered Suichi Aizawa. "L's just said he's decided to trust us now but honestly what reason do we have to trust him?" he spoke up pointing an accusing finger at the computer in front of the man known as Watatri. Another man spoke up but Aizawa was blocking him so I couldn't quite see his face. I thought I recognized the voice though.

"Look L," he began. "All of us here have agreed to put our lives at risk to bring Kira to justice. So I hope you understand what that means; we're sticking our necks out here."

"But you never have to show your face do you?" Aizawa added on. "You just give the orders! I don't see how you can expect us to work alongside you under those conditions!" silence followed their points of view and I couldn't help but agree with them.

"L," I began with a reasoning tone I'd once used on my five year old son. "If all of us are going to work together on this investigation and if you truly meant what you said about trusting the six of us…" I let it hang in the air for a bit before continuing. "Could you come here so we could all meet in person?" there was a brief silence that followed as we waited for his answer.

"The thought had already crossed my mind," he finally responded. "After all, I did say I trusted all of you." With that Watari turned the laptop so it was facing the rest of us, a document opened up with type on it. We watched with baited breath as more type appeared on the same document. It was a proclamation from L asking us to come to him. It held his current address and specific instructions. Not too long after, that very evening, we were waiting outside the police station.

"Why is he seeking our help now," one of the men asked. Though I'd heard the question I was also paying attention and waiting for the taxi to show so I didn't know from whom it was said.

"There are only six of us!" he continued. "He's solved all these difficult cases by himself in the past so what makes this one so different? The way L's been conducting things so far, odds are he's going to send a stand in or a proxy of some kind to meet us instead of coming himself. It's not like we'd ever know."

"A proxy huh?" questioned another. "Well it is possible." I was paying more attention now.

"I believe L," stated someone suddenly. It had definitely been Matsuda, only he would try giving someone like L a chance concerning the circumstances. "I think we can trust him. And besides I don't really see how we can solve this case without his help," he finished reasoning. I admired him, the boy had a good head on his shoulders and even though he was a rookie, he held great potential.

"I agree!" said Mogi straightforward. He didn't need to say anything else but anyway my mind was still thinking things over. I began to voice what I'd come up with to reassure my men while marveling at the way L worked.

"From the beginning," I started. "He's been very upfront about the fact that he would need the help of the police on this case. Perhaps we should think of it like…he's been waiting for this to happen all along." I glanced back over my shoulder to make sure I had the men's attention. Matsuda's eyes were wide with questioning.

"Why would he do something like that?" he asked astounded.

"There were a number of people on the task force who distrusted L before this investigation began," I explained, turning around to face them. "And once we started we had detectives resigning left and right. Following that, classified information was leaked, so I'm not surprised he didn't trust us." Everyone clued in but Matsuda voiced the conclusion.

"So in other word he was waiting for the task force to get narrowed down to only those investigators he could trust and to do that he needed to weed out anyone who wasn't totally committed." I nodded to confirm. Then I heard a growl come from somebody.

"Ugh! If we're working with that guy I'm leaving the task force," said ( ). He turned around and headed back towards the entrance of the building. "You don't have to worry; I won't try to follow you. I'm not interested in finding L," he reassured us then disappeared inside with a wave of his hand. _And so,_ I thought, _there really are only five of us after all._

"Well I think that w we can trust L," said someone beside me as I stared after him. "So I'd be willing to cooperate with him on this investigation." Aizawa sighed and gave a faint smile.

"Count me in," he said. I nodded, thanking each and every one of them with my eyes. With that, we waited some more then were taxied down in different groups to make sure we arrived the way that L wanted us to. That was thirty minutes apart and so that we all arrived at midnight. Not to long after, we all stood outside of L's hotel room door. Taking a deep breath, I finally gave a knock. At first there was silence then…

"It's unlocked!" stated a voice from the other side of the door. "Please…let yourselves in." I glanced down at the door handle and placed my hand on it. Then after another deep breath, I turned it and opened the door inward. The person behind that door…wasn't who either of us was expecting.

 _L._

They all entered at once. As I waited for them to close the door, I became slightly nervous at the prospect of having guests. I scratched the back of my bare foot on the back of my other leg's pant leg. Taking in the task force I could tell they were all shocked by my appearance. Perhaps they'd been expecting someone more formal, more intimidating. I had to agree with their stares; I wasn't all that intimidating looking. However, that didn't mean I couldn't be.

"I am L," I finally said to make them understand that I was who they'd come to see. I stared at them with the same expression I usually wore; unamused and emotionless. I could see they were still trying to get used to the unexpected. The chief who I'd read up on and was heading the group broke out of his shock first and became serious as he reached into his pocket and pulled something out.

"I'm Yagami," he said, "Of the NPA." He flashed me his badge as did all of the others, following his lead and introducing themselves. _Honestly,_ I thought intrigued. _These men are too naïve. They just showed me their identification without a second thought. That kind of thinking gets one killed in this line of work._

"I'm very sorry we're late," apologized the police chief as I raised my arm up and formed my fingers into a pretend firearm. "Currently the five us are," he continued

"Bang!" I said pointing the fake firearm straight at them and bucking it as if it had just gone off. The men seemed surprised by the act. They weren't sure what to think.

"What the hell was that?" questioned the one with the afro. I believe his name is Suichi Aizawa however I paid him no heed.

"Hm, if I were Kira then you'd be dead Mr. Soichiro Yagami, chief of the NPA," I stated plainly. Once again the men were taken aback by what I'd done. I turned not letting them out of my sight. "Kira needs a face and a name in order to commit murder," I explained. "But I'm sure you've already figured that out haven't you? Please do not give out your names so carelessly. Instead, let's value our lives." I finished turning to go sit down on the sofa. I heard one of the men talking behind me but it wasn't to me.

"I knew that he needed a face to kill someone but I don't remember any evidence that showed that he needed a name too," he admitted. The chief's voice replied to him.

"There's no way to verify if this is related but criminals whose names were never released publically or whose names have been spelled incorrectly in the media have not been targeted. We briefly went over it at one of our meetings," Mr. Yagami assured his partner.

"That's enough small talk for now," I stated. "Come this way."

"Oh uh right," said the man who'd spoken with the chief.

"Please turn off all cellphones, handhelds and other communication devices and leave them on the table right there," I instructed the men, indicating the table that stood in the center of the seating arrangements.

"What do you think, we're gonna be using our cellphones during this meeting to leak information?" sneered the man called Aizawa. It was clear we'd be getting off to a rocky start at first as this was the first time I had ever shown my face to anyone while working on a case.

"It's alright, just do as he says," Mr. Yagami stated. With that, one by one all of the communications devices were placed on the table.

"I realize that he's been cautious from the beginning, but I still can't tell if he trusts us or not," said the man named Matsuda, I realized after seeing his face again. I climbed into the armchair nearest to me and took up my usual comfortable position that I sat in.

"No I just find them distracting," I reassured them. "I just can't stand it when people's cell phones are ringing while I'm trying to talk. Not to mention vibrating isn't as silent as they say and is even more annoying than most ringtones." The men came into the sitting area fully. I looked up at them with a serious face. "Now let me just start by saying that no one takes notes on anything said in these meetings. That means when we leave headquarters any information we need is committed to memory." I watched them as they stood there looking awkward and still staring at my strange sitting habit.

"Please," I said in a more friendly tone and gestured to the surrounding seats. "Make yourselves more comfortable."

"Uh right," stuttered Mr. Yagami as he led his men into the room and they all took their seats. A few moments of silence passed and they all kept staring at me. However, something else was on my mind. Tea! I wanted tea right now and so I took the pot I'd brewed not too long ago and poured into a little teacup I'd laid out in front of me. I leaned forward picking it up delicately and took a cautious sip. I licked my lips at the bitter taste. _Sugar!_ I thought. _It needs more sugar._ And so I began putting several cubes of sugar into my tea. Matsuda began to speak up then.

"Excuse me, L…"

"Mm, and from now on I'll have to ask you to stop calling me L. It's Ryuzaki now, just to be to be safe," I interrupted.

"Uh, okay then Ryuzaki," Matsuda began again with my new alias. "If we know he needs a name and face to kill, couldn't we cut down on the number of victims by keeping criminal's names from the news?" he wondered. I began stirring my tea.

"I suppose we could," I admitted. "However, we don't exactly get a say with the world media. Even if we stopped broadcasting those names and faces here then he would turn towards another country even another continent. We already know he's trying to trick us into thinking he's in two places at once when he's really only here in Japan." I brought my tea up to my lips and took a sip.

"Wait a minute," Matsuda spoke up. "How do we know he's trying to trick us? He still could be moving between New York and Japan couldn't he?" I shook my head.

"Not really. After the broadcast of Lind L. Tailor he became more aware and began killing more frequently in both Japan and New York to try and make it seem like he hadn't figured it out when he had. All of the murders were happening at different times and yet at the same times. The time difference between Tokyo Japan and New York or any of those nearby areas is precisely fourteen hours with Tokyo being ahead. That means when we are in the AM over here in Japan, New York is in the PM and based on what we have so far, every attack happened during the PM hours of New York and the AM hours of Japan. Therefore Kira is active only in the hours of Japanese Standard time." I took another sip of my tea.

"But couldn't Kira just be a night person?" suggested Matsuda. "If he operates in the PM hours of New York maybe it's because he sleeps all day rather than at night."

"Hm yes that is a good point Matsuda," agreed Mr. Yagami. "However, if you can remember correctly, we deduced that it's more than likely Kira is a student and if that's true then staying up all night wouldn't allow for when the attacks started occurring to make sense. Plus, without much sleep, I doubt he'd be doing as well as he is now." I nodded in agreement.

"That's correct. I've already figured myself that Kira is in fact a student. He's still learning and believe it or not he's also become sloppier trying to keep up with his so called schoolwork and his murders because the times of the killings have been staggering between off the charts sometimes and falling back to the normal hours of a typical student's free time as before based on the Japanese school schedules in this region. This means that Kira is young and naïve and because of that he truly believes in his so called sense of justice."

"Sense of justice?" questioned Ukita. "How do we know he's doing this with a sense of justice?"

"Well he is trying to souly kill criminals," Aizawa pointed. "With a few innocents on the sidelines of course but he does sound like a kid who doesn't know the true value of life. He could be going off of only what he's been raised on and learned thus far having no idea how bad it really is." I nodded in agreement.

"Precisely!" I exclaimed. "Kira is without a doubt somewhat a child and somewhat like myself however, I am childish and I hate to lose while Kira is childish, hates to lose and is afraid."

"Afraid of what exactly?" questioned Matsuda.

"Why, of his own power to kill of course," I replied. It was so obvious to me but the rest of the task force didn't seem like they were catching on. I sighed. "Allow me to explain," I continued. "Kira so far has met my challenges head on and has never missed the opportunity to return the favor. The broadcast of Lind L. Tailor and the FBI agents in Japan and New York are good examples. Think back to when he killed Lind L. Tailor. He didn't know Tailor was a criminal about to be executed and just attacked because he thought his own safety was in jeopardy, because his actions had then begun to be publicized. Now think back to when he killed those FBI agents.

"Each one's death was a heart attack but this time his victim's bodies disintegrated as soon as their identities were confirmed right after the first autopsy as though he was saying, "I'm sorry I had to do this but you left me no choice, now stay out of my way or else." Now why do you think he would do that to the bodies of the innocent people he'd killed if Tailor's body was just left alone?" I waited then to see if anyone could answer. Ukita spoke up after a while.

"Because in both scenarios he panicked when his safety was threatened, he became less rational with his actions. With Lind L. Tailor he had made the mistake of trying to throw us off the trail by waiting too long and attacking at the wrong moment." Some of the other investigators seemed to be catching on. I was somewhat glad that I hadn't signed on to work with complete idiots who didn't know how to do their jobs like the New York officers.

"Right," Matsuda cut in. "And when he realized that hadn't worked, he freaked out and acted rashly without thinking about the consequences. Realizing this put him in more danger, he decided to alter the deaths of the FBI agents so they would disintegrate after we tried to confirm their identities and before we could reconfirm them." He paused a moment. "But then why would he do that? What's the point of disintegrating the bodies?"

"It could be because he couldn't live with the guilt of having killed innocents and had their bodies removed so he didn't have to think about them again," Aizawa suggested.

"Or," I interjected bringing their attention around to me again. "It could be because he wants us to think those were the real bodies." My statement caused even more questioning eyes to stare at me. I then went into explaining my thesis. "Come on think about it. Why would Kira take away the only evidence we have of the deaths of the FBI agents if they were really dead? There are two simple solutions. One; he killed them and is hiding the bodies or there was nothing left of them to begin with and he wanted to be recognized which I highly doubt. And then there's number two where he didn't kill them and wanted us to believe he did."

"Wait, but didn't he kill them?" questioned a now confused Ukita. I shook my head.

"No, that's the point," I said, shaking my head. "He didn't kill them. Kira is a devoted character, he undoubtedly wants to stick to his way of justice but he is also afraid of getting caught by us and so he's trying to frighten us away by making it seem as though he's killed our own men. However, this act is only going to get him caught faster for I'm not that easily dissuaded." I finished off my tea then in one fell swoop as if to prove I meant what I'd said and really I had.

"Oh I get it now," Matsuda chirped up. "He's afraid of getting caught but he's also afraid of his own power to kill which is why he chose to use criminals in the first place. It's as if he's being forced by a motivation other than his own to kill; as if he might not even want to be a killer."

"Precisely," I clarified, "Which brings me to another matter concerning Kira. Numbers!" I stated matter of factly. The task force members listened intently.

"Numbers?" inquired the chief. I nodded.

"Mm hm, Numbers! So far we know that Kira has been able to shall we say kidnap the FBI agents and is more than likely now holding them in a secluded facility somewhere either in or near the country. However, continuing on the fact that he reacted rashly and was trying to trick us into thinking he was in more than one place at once, he must've been able to find out that there were FBI agents in New York City as well. Then not only does he get rid of the FBI agents here in Japan but the ones working on the Kira case in New York as well. I highly doubt that he was able to fake the agent's deaths then move them from two large locations all by himself at the same time. He must have accomplices, partners in crime assisting him in his endeavors." The task force took this in with a round of gasps and awed expressions. Aizawa sat back on the couch with a huff.

"Well this is just great!" he exclaimed. "Now instead of dealing with one guy, we're facing practically an army of Kira disciples!"

"Well not necessarily an army but definitely a small group of followers," I stated. "But anyway, getting back to what Matsuda mentioned earlier with the media, I've been thinking that rather than use it to keep Kira from killing more criminals we could scare him and his little group further. How about… death of FBI agents infuriates the US? Latest killings anger the international policing community; nations agree to send fifteen hundred investigators to Japan." They seemed astounded. "For Kira and his group of followers, this will be way more than they faced with the FBI before. Next, they'll start seeing everyone around them as a potential threat causing Kira to become more frightened than he was previously. Psychologically, he'll start to feel cornered, start making more mistakes and not be able to lead his followers effectively. This is how we'll draw him out."

"Oh I get it," stated Aizawa. "He'll think there are fifteen hundred of us when there are only seven of us. And since those agents don't exist, Kira won't be able to kidnap them or whatever he's been doing with the innocents."

"It just might work," added Ukita. I brought my thumb up to my lip and started biting at the nail some.

"Well, before we celebrate, allow me to share the rest of my thoughts on the Kira case," I interjected. Realizing I wasn't quite done, the men nodded and listened. "Kira might not be a man." I continued calmly. The others seemed shocked.

"So wait, you think Kira could be like not even human?" questioned Matsuda. I stared at him blankly simply astounded he had come to that conclusion.

"No," I said slowly. "I mean Kira could be a female rather than a male."

"Oh," Matsuda seemed to shrink after that, seemingly embarrassed by his answer.

"I see," stated the chief, "How do you figure that Ryuzaki?"

"Mm, simple," I explained. "Think about it. The way a man kills and the way a woman kills is significantly different than the other. A man will show off, try be seen and want to show the world his power while a woman will try to remain concealed, keep her power hidden and might even be afraid of it. And we've already established that Kira is afraid of his own power and every attack, even the one that involved the car accident, each victim died of souly a heart attack. Of course, do keep in mind that this is merely a theory as we can't know for sure and since not all females and males act like that nowadays so we should still refer to Kira as a "he" until this is verified." The men nodded.

"Next," I continued. "We've already verified that Kira needs a name and a face to kill someone. We've also discovered that he can also to some extent control the victim's time of death as well as their actions before dying. We already know this much so please keep that in mind." I then pulled out a black marker and a large notepad onto which I began writing. Some of the men leaned forward trying to see it.

"Now listen carefully to what I say next. On December fourteenth, twelve FBI investigators enter Japan. Here we are on December nineteenth. Using prison inmates, Kira conducts experiments manipulating his victim's actions before they die. In other words in this window of only five days, Kira became aware of the FBI's presence and obviously felt threatened and began to panic. Because he didn't know anybody's names or faces he knew he wouldn't be able to kill them but then he still wouldn't be able to kill them because he didn't want to kill them.

"Nevertheless he decided to take action against the FBI agents and began experimenting and as we all know, on December twenty seventh, he got a hold of not only a file that contained all of the names and faces of the FBI agents but it was reported that the agent known as Raye Penber had gone missing slightly earlier than the others along with his laptop which contained classified information. As we all know, Kira over reacted and took hold of the twelve agents in Japan but those in New York as well."

"But wait," Matsuda interrupted suddenly. I growled internally at the interruption. "Doesn't that mean that whoever Raye Penber was investigating earlier within this time frame could be a suspect?" I was utterly surprised at Matsuda as he'd gotten to my next point before I had.

"Um, yes, that's exactly right. Ahem!" I cleared my throat to continue again. "Anyways as Matsuda pointed out, whoever Raye Penber was investigating during the time is a suspect. But there's something else that unnerves me as well. During the time between the nineteenth and twenty seventh of December to the best of our knowledge at least twenty three victims had been killed, all being heart attacks. However, these victims were different than Kira's other targets. They were all alleged criminals, ex-convicts or suspects in ongoing investigations so legally speaking they were innocent."

"That's true," agreed the chief.

"What this indicates," I went on, "Is that Kira had to manipulate these lesser criminals in order to test his powers so he could take those FBI agents without having to kill them. This adds to the fact from what I said before that Kira is still young and Naïve. He killed this many people in order to confuse us so we wouldn't be able to tell the difference from the actual decoys and the ones being used. In truth, he probably only needed a few. This supports the theory that Kira is someone who was being investigated by the FBI, souly Raye Penber between the fourteenth and nineteenth of December. Of course we cannot rule out other suspects because who knows, this could be another of his ploys to throw us off his trail. So we'll focus on all who were being investigated by the FBI during the allotted time period." The men nodded their agreement and then I pulled out some papers which had been in a bag on the floor.

"These here are files provided by the FBI with added information you might find useful," I stated. "For obvious reasons, you're not permitted to take these out of this room but…"

"Amazing!" exclaimed Matsuda excitedly. "There might only be five of us but with this information we should be able to cover a lot more ground!" Aizawa nodded.

"Yeah, we'll split into two teams. One team traces the FBI agents and analyzes the autopsies while the other looks at the heart attack victims."

"There weren't that many people who had access to information from headquarters and of those, the FBI only investigated a small group in the first five days," Matsuda continued.

"Yeah, yeah!" replied Aizawa nodding his head for emphasis. Meanwhile the chief just watched them all as they got into the files. I rolled my eyes.

"So does anybody have any questions?" I questioned, drawing their attention back to me. There was a slight pause before the chief answered.

"Actually Ryuzaki, I do have one question for you," he admitted. "And it pertains to what you told us earlier about you hating to lose. Does the fact that you've shown us your face mean that you've lost? By just being here are you admitting defeat to Kira?" I was slightly taken aback by the question but I was still prepared to answer it.

"That's right," I admitted placidly. "By showing my face to you now and by sacrificing the lives of twelve FBI agents, I have lost the battle." I took a slight pause to allow my answer to sink in before saying in one of my most determined tones, "But I'm not going to lose the war." They watched me as I continued. "This is the first time I have ever put my life on the line. I want to show Kira that we are all willing to risk our lives if that's what it takes." I paused again, a smile creeping onto my face. "And that justice will prevail no matter what!" They watched me then smiles broke out on their faces.

"Hey, yeah that's right!" stated Mogi who hadn't said a thing all night.

"I like the sound of that," said Matsuda inspired.

"We can do this!" exclaimed Ukita.

"Alright then," started Aizawa. "Let's do this Ryuzaki!" My smile seemed to grow as this would no doubt be the beginning of something great. The chief's face softened as he gave a smile like the rest of them. Then just like that, my smile was gone as I had to get right down to business.

"Before we can go any further, I have to be absolutely sure that none of you are Kira so I'll need to speak with each of you individually before you leave today," I stated. They seemed shocked yet again.

"Huh, what's the deal," Aizawa asked skeptically. "He still doesn't trust us?"

"No!" the chief interrupted him. They turned to face Chief Yagami. "I think it's a fair request. Try to see it from his perspective. Kira's been getting information from our headquarters from the very beginning so it's a good chance he's one of us." he finished. By this point I had already left them sitting in their chairs and had wandered over to the window.

"Chief's right," I heard Matsuda say behind me as I gazed out over the city. "Working this case has given us a chance to see him in person."

"He's risking his life to be here," I heard from Aizawa. It didn't take me long to tune them out. As I stared out over the city, my mind began to think.

 _Things are going well,_ I thought to myself. _Just one clue, a single decisive factor is all I need, just one thing._ Then it was like I was speaking directly to Kira as if he or she could hear my thoughts. _Kira, you and your friends won't be able to hide from me for long. So what will you do next…eh Kira?_

 _Light_

I took another quick glance over at Lila as we walked towards the police headquarters building. She remained staring straight ahead as we went and I couldn't blame her. She probably thought I hated her now that I knew. The truth of the matter was, I still couldn't get over it all.

I glanced back at the Shinigami following behind us like a shadow, well following her anyway, and wondered yet again how I'd managed to get wrapped up in all of this. I sighed as I glanced up at the sky next and thought back to that fateful night I'd found the death note.

The truth had been I'd been suspecting she was up to something for quite some time and I could tell she was trying to hide it especially after she and my Aunt Ajisai had become close enough friends that they'd ended up exchanging phone numbers to keep in touch with when at first, she'd hated her guts. So this had led to me getting worried and guiltily snooping around her room for clues and answers. When I'd come across the death note locked away in a box in her underwear drawer; yes I had gone that far and no I'm not a pervert; and then had seen the names of countless criminals written inside in neat tiny writing, I had nearly had my own heart attack right then and there.

Afterwards I had read the instructions, unable to believe or even comprehend them, I had sat in wait in her dark room for her to return and give me the answers I desired. I'd been expecting her to say that it was a terrible joke she'd thought up, not a total confession.

"And what nightmare would that be?" I had asked innocently as she'd opened the door in response to her statement. I had held the notebook up for her to see and watched as the colour drained from her face and she looked at me in terror. She'd then come in all the way, closing the door behind her. I had maintained my posture and composure as I proceeded with the questioning.

"What's going on here Lila?" I had asked. I suppose the anger I had still been expressing towards my father for grounding me came through into the question and that was why she'd flinched. "Tell me what a notebook called a death note with all of the names of practically every criminal Kira has killed, in your writing; is doing in your room?" She had remained against the door, the fear growing in her eyes and the fear I had for her growing within myself.

"Why," she'd squeaked. "Why are you in here Light?" I could see that tears were forming in her eyes. Suddenly I had felt very guilty for snooping around in her room uninvited but what was scaring me was that she wasn't starting by trying to defend herself like I'd thought she would. She'd looked about ready to cry. Then I'd heard another voice coming from somewhere behind me and to the side where the window was.

"Well it looks like we have an intruder," it'd said in a gravelly and almost taunting tone. "Perhaps I'll get rid of him for you."

"Ryuk, no!" she'd yelped in panic as I had immediately spun around, standing from the computer chair to come face to face with a grotesque monster. My whole body had frozen and I had screamed, jumping back and knocking into the computer chair then falling onto my behind. I couldn't have torn my eyes from the creature even if I'd wanted too. The monster just laughed.

We were all frozen at that point in our positions for what seemed a very long time. Finally, from out of the corner of my eye, I had watched as Lila made her way over to her bed where she'd turned on the bed side lamp and had sat down in what looked to be a fetal position whilst rubbing her temples.

"Why me," she had kept saying over and over. Slowly I was able to come back around from my initial shock and began to stand while shaking slightly. Unable to stand all the way up, I'd ended up pulling up the computer chair from where it had rolled away and sat. I took a few deep breaths. Finally I just couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Lila," I had started again, slightly calmer but still with a tone of authority. "What's going on here? What is all of this? Please, you're scaring me." She seemed to shrink into herself, probably feeling guilty. It seemed like forever before she actually spoke again.

"I'm sorry," she'd apologized. "I just don' know where to begin or just how much I should say." The monster had spoken up then.

"Well you could just tell him what you told me. Isn't he supposed to be the ex-main character? He should have the right to know right?" I was honestly confused by this point and the presence of the monster wasn't helping my nerves any. Lila had somewhat nodded in response to its suggestion and that upset me even more.

"What exactly do you think is going on here Light," she then had asked. "Tell me what you think you've found." I nodded slowly, taking a deep breath as I replied.

"Well, for starters, I came in here because you've been acting strangely lately and I wanted to know what was wrong," I'd begun, explaining my reason for snooping. "Then I found this, this, this notebook and realized as I began reading it that it was filled with the names of criminals, specifically the ones which Kira has killed thus far. I flipped back to the front and read the instructions and realized that you might possibly be Kira so what I want to know now is this." I'd paused then, making sure she was paying attention. She'd come out of her fetal position somewhat, raising her head slightly to look at me.

"Are you really Kira?" I'd finally asked. "And if so then…why?" In response, Lila had come full out of her fetal position then, and creeping towards the end of the bed. Her eyes showed she looked defeated and so tired. She'd come to the edge of the bed and had sat with her legs hanging over the end. She'd sighed looking down and then back up at me with saddened eyes.

"Yes, I am Kira," she stated. My heart had sunk. Even though Kira was supposed to be a serial killer, Lila had made it sound as if the name Kira and the job itself was a fairly heavy burden that she didn't care to carry. "I'm sorry," she'd apologized afterwards. I'd gazed at her with pleading eyes, a part of me wishing she'd take it back and say it was only a joke. However, her look and the monster floating behind her wouldn't have made it believable. She'd then continued on, starting the long explanation of why she was Kira.

"Look Light," she'd started. "I never wanted any of this and I suppose the only way to go now is to tell you the truth," she paused. "The whole truth." I'd nodded, she'd inhaled and exhaled slowly. "My story begins long before I met you, on a day where I was hanging with my friends at the mall, the same friends who despite my better wishes, had dragged me to a party that night because they didn't want to go without me. This happened in Fredericton, New Brunswick Canada and…it happened in another world." After that, her whole story had come out, even the part where she explained that our world we were in right then and there was merely a manga slash anime which was pretty popular where she was from.

She'd explained that I had been the main character and the bad guy, that I had been Kira and that I'd become a sort of psychopath who used the death note to kill not only criminals but innocent people who got in my way like the great detective L and the FBI agents. She'd even told me I'd led my own father to his demise and my sister had been kidnapped by mafia trying to get a hold of a death note of their own. By the time she'd finished her story, I was rendered speechless and quite pale. The scary part had been remembering that one day in school where I had truly been thinking about our rotten world and what it would take to fix it. But that had been before I'd been so close death myself four times.

Thankfully, she'd clarified that she hadn't killed anyone she hadn't needed to and that the man I'd seen die of a heart attack after he'd jumped me hadn't actually been her doing. Meanwhile the monster, or rather the Shinigami known as Ryuk as I'd been told verified everything. At the end of the tale, I just stared into nothingness trying to process everything.

"So, you're from another world where this world is an anime and the Cheshire cat took you from there after you died, putting you into a position to use the death note?" I'd questioned. She'd nodded.

"And if you don't then some group in the coming future will try to break into the Shinigami realm, succeed and become necromancers with even greater powers that will destroy this world? The death note couldn't be avoided."

"That's right," she'd replied. I nodded again.

"And when your task is done, you'll be marked by the Cheshire and be called upon again whenever you're needed again, correct?" She'd nodded slower on this one looking somewhat guilty again, as though she'd left something out. I decided I wouldn't prod because I got the feeling she wanted to not be reminded of that coming fate.

"Plus Aunt Ajisai is helping you out by holding whoever tries to get in your way prisoner until your mission is complete, that way you won't have to kill them?"

"That's the idea," she'd said, nodding. "I don't want anyone innocent dying this time. Since I'm the one who's Kira, I'm the one who calls the shots and that's not one I want to call. I swear, even if it kills me, I'm not going to let myself become a power hungry person who kills just because I can." I'd winced at that. After having her explain that that was who I'd become last time, it felt as though she were still referring to me. However, I doubted I'd have the will to kill anyone after all the death I'd previously seen.

After I'd had the story reconfirmed, I'd remained thinking it over again and again. Meanwhile, Ryuk the Shinigami had been munching on an apple. I'd kept glancing back and forth between the Shinigami and my adopted sister. The only thing that had been going through my head was how heavy the burden of Kira must be and how she must really hate having to be forced to do this. Then is wandered to the thoughts of, _can I really become a monster like what she described. Would I really begin to think of myself as a god if I had a death note? Maybe if I'd remained innocent not knowing what death looked like or smelled like, like with that man from Aunt Ajisai's town. I had been thinking what a rotten world this is but there are good things in it too, right? Like milkshakes, wait why the hell am I thinking about milkshakes at a time like this? Damn it Lila, you and your sweet tooth and now I think I'm addicted._ My mind had been falling off track at that point. Maybe I could've used a milkshake. Lila had proven that sometimes a milkshake could calm one's nerves. I'd continued thinking.

 _Lila, what have you gotten yourself into, no wait, what has that cat deity gotten you into? You've been alone this whole time, more alone than I'd thought you've been. Being from another world and brought to a new one after you've died, and a world you've seen played out in front of you. I can't even begin to imagine what that must be like. The stress of knowing that things are going to change right under your nose and then being forced by some god like creature to become a mass murderer. I don't even want to think of you being a murderer but there's no way around it._

I'd leaned back to look at the ceiling then. _Oh why,_ I thought towards the heavens. _Why have you done this to someone so innocent, so young and vulnerable. Why do this when you could've saved her life instead? She's so alone and what can I do for her? I don't know what it's like to die so young. My family and I have accepted her but now I really want to reach out to her. I truly feel as though she's my younger sister so tell me damn it, as her older brother what do I do?!_ I had sat there longer, shutting my eyes.

"This is boring," Ryuk huffed from across the room.

"If you don't like it, then leave," I'd heard Lila state, not in the mood.

 _"_ _You've got a brain,"_ spoke a voice. _"_ _Why don't you use it to help her and stop whining?"_ The voice wasn't coming from anyone in the room, but it had sounded like it was close by, near my ear in fact and what had surprise me the most was the fact that I had reacted mentally not physically so the others hadn't picked up on it.

 _"_ _Who is this?"_ I demanded in thought, thinking that if I spoke out loud, the other two would think I was crazy.

 _"_ _Who do you think genius?"_ it'd questioned almost mockingly. _"_ _I'm the one you've been talking to. After all, it was I you were questioning, was it not?"_

 _"_ _The cat!"_ I'd mentally exclaimed.

 _"_ _Bingo!"_ he'd replied, or rather hissed. _"_ _Now stop being a big wuss and start using that brain of yours. If you truly see her as your sister and you as her brother then do what a brother would do for his sister. Protect her."_

 _"_ _Protect her?"_ I'd questioned, giving it some thought. _"_ _Of course, if the Kira case is going to get any harder and if this great detective L is involved then she won't stand a chance. She's smart in her own_ _way but not on a psychological level. I'm not for killing anyone at this point but I don't want to see her suffer for what another has forced her into._

 _"_ _Good,"_ the cat had replied. _"_ _Then get to it. Oh and this is the first and last time you'll ever hear my voice Yagami. Just keep this in mind though, I'm always watching. Goodbye Light."_ And then there had been silence. The cat had been right of course. Lila couldn't do this alone and even though she had Ajisai's help, I still needed to do my part as her adoptive older brother. I had then lowered my head again, sighing.

"Are you sure about this?" I had asked. She'd cringed a bit.

"I haven't been really sure of anything since I've gotten here," she'd replied. I'd nodded, understanding. After another long pause, I had looked her straight in the eye and said,

"I'll help!" Instead of relief, horror swept her face as she'd started shaking her head back and forth.

"No, no Light, no! You can't, I just told you what happened didn't I? I don't want you involved!"

"Well I'm already involved!" I'd snapped back not meaning to be so forceful. She'd cringed again and I had no choice but to explain.

"Look," I'd said. "I don't like the idea of killing people any more than you do. I heard how you'd described the other me but this time it's different. You might have seen a crazed serial killer before on the screen but I'm still human and this is for real and this time, you're my younger sister." I'd really meant what I'd said and I'd showed it with my hard staring eyes. "Besides, we both know that L is smarter than what he appears to be and if you really want to get through this without having to kill him or any innocent bystanders then you need me. If what you said before is true then I'm the only one whose brain can go head to head with L's.

"Listen, I'm only offering my wit for you to use and if it makes you feel any better then I won't use the death note, I'll just leave that part to you. But I'm not letting you go any further with this without me by your side. Besides, you told me that L probably already suspects me of being Kira so I'll have to end up confronting him sooner or later." I'd finished and watched her. Ryuk watched her too as he seemed intrigued by what I'd offered. However, Lila still wasn't ready to give in.

"But Light, we don't know what being around the power of death note will do to you. It practically destroyed your mental health the last time and you stopped caring for your own family. I know you're a good guy but I'm not going to risk yours or your family's life just so I can gain an edge on L. I'm sorry but no, it'll probably be best if you just forget what you saw here today and I'll even run away to make it easier." I had never been so shocked in my life. She really was an idiot.

"And how the hell do think that will make you look?!" I'd shouted. "As soon as they come investigating me then they'll learn that you ran away and L will start looking for you. You've already made some mistakes that have led him closer to you. And besides, you can't run away!"

"And why not!" she'd started yelling back.

"Because I know your secret!" I'd stated loudly. "If you don't allow me to work with you then I'll work against, I'll become your enemy and I'll reveal your identity to L and the entire task force including my father. You might run but you'll never find a moment's peace so long as L and the world are searching for you. Then you'll end up killing them out of desperation of escape and regret for the rest of your life in this world. Is that what you want?" At this she'd shrunk again, back onto the bed. She didn't know what to do and I could tell she was conflicted within. Finally, she'd just curled up and started silently crying. I could see her shuddering. I had sighed once again heavily and went over to sit down on her bed. Then I'd pulled her into a hug and held her as she wept. _She's been through enough already,_ I'd thought. _Maybe I shouldn't have yelled._

"Lila," I'd spoken softly. "I don't want to be a part of killing anyone any more than you. But I can't just watch you go through this alone. If there's something darker lying in wait on this path then let's face it together, not alone. I've got your back if you have mine." She'd looked up at me with questioning watery eyes. I'd smiled. "I'll join you and help you make it to the end of this long and terrifying road but you have to do something for me too. Promise me you won't let me turn into that monster." She'd stared at me for a while after that and then had leaned back into my hug.

"Okay Light, I promise," she'd sniffled. "But you have to promise me something too." Then it'd been my turn to stare down with a questioning gaze. "Promise me that no matter what happens…you'll trust me and never write anyone's name in the death note, even if I'm to die." I'd been taken aback by this but nonetheless I'd accepted.

"Alright Lila, I promise," I'd replied. She'd then breathed a sigh of relief and her entire body relaxed. Then in no time at all, I'd realized she'd fallen asleep in my embrace. I'd then proceeded to take off her slippers, lay her down in her bed then tuck her in. Before I could leave though, the Shinigami stopped me.

"Hey you!" he'd said in his gravelly voice. "You didn't really mean that you'd be throwing her in prison did you?" asked he. I'd had to think a bit on that one because in all honesty, I'd just come up with the threat on the fly.

"Maybe, I dunno," I sighed. Then the Shinigami had gotten in my face.

"Well then pretty boy here's a thought to keep in mind if you do consider trying to pull such a stunt or breaking that promise," he'd sneered. "If you so much as make a move that threatens her freedom or safety I'll personally be writing your name in my death note and I can assure you I've got a pretty active imagination nowadays so you can be sure the cause of your death will not be as merciful as heart attack." I'd mentally and physically froze in place for a split second before looking up again into his face with an unwavering smug smile. I had not about to let myself be pushed around by a Shinigami.

"Understood Shinigami," I'd started. "But remember this. I too have a very active imagination and if you dare harm my sister then you can bet I'll figure out a way to kill you. You're not human so I don't feel squeamish about ridding the world of you."

"Heh should be interesting then," he'd replied. "Welcome to the team Light Yagami." I'd already turned to leave.

"Glad to be on board Shinigami," I'd replied. And with that, I'd left the room and returned to my own. Thankfully, my parents hadn't heard any of the shouting coming from upstairs so they'd just remained in the living room watching the television and talking about the day. I'd slipped into my room quietly and approached my computer.

After I'd turned it on, the files I was supposed to send back to my father's computer were still on the screen, ready for transfer. I'd sat down and stared at the screen for a while. Then I'd sighed.

"Sorry dad," I'd said. Then before he'd come in to check if the job was done, I'd already copied the files and had placed them on a jump drive which I'd hidden in my drawer.

"Are the files back where they should be?" he'd asked from the door. I'd nodded.

"Yes," I'd sighed as if annoyed which I supposed I really had been. My father had then sighed, sounding old and tired.

"You know I'm only doing this because I love you right?" he'd asked. "This case is too dangerous and you've got your whole life ahead of you. Once Kira is apprehended, I promise I'll let you help out on the next case. Meanwhile, you have school to think about. Good night Light." I'd sighed again from my bed.

"Good night dad." Then the door had closed and I'd finally been able to drift off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

That night still weighed heavily on my mind. I knew it wasn't going to be easy so I had to be careful and the Shinigami's warning had me still wondering about him and why he would care anything for Lila.

"Oh look," Lila suddenly spoke up, pulling me from my thoughts. I looked to where she was pointing. "We're almost there!" She was right. We were almost to the police headquarters where my father worked.

"Why are we even bothering to do this?" I wondered aloud. Lila looked to me for an answer. "I mean you already said he'll be in a meeting with L already at some fancy hotel. We don't know when he'll get them." She put on a pouty face.

"Oh come on Light, don't be like that. Do you think I like waltzing down to the police station knowing eyes are everywhere? No I don't and besides we'll be safe as long as we don't do something stupid." I nodded. Now that I knew her secret and had promised to help her, despite promising not to write in the death note, I still felt rather jumpy inside just walking towards the police station.

We entered through the two big double doors and approached the counter where I saw the familiar face of the front desk manager. He was already in the process of trying to tell the woman she couldn't see someone, I hadn't heard who because my mind was still busy thinking, but after five seconds, I noticed Lila had stopped cold in her tracks. Looking back at her, I was surprised her face was one of shock.

"Lila, what's the matter?" I asked in a whisper.

"Naomi Misora!" she exclaimed. I looked back up at the woman wondering if she was the one she'd meant.

"Who's Naomi Misora?" I questioned her again. She raised a finger to the woman's back.

"She is," she replied. "I almost forgot about her. She's Raye Penber's fiancée and she's one of the ones who got close to discovering Kira's true identity and if she's here then she's already figured out Kira can kill in more ways than one." My heart started beating faster. _Crap,_ I thought. _What the hell do we do now? From Lila's information, she must've picked up on the whole bus jacking thing as a Kira attack and it wouldn't take her long to figure that whoever had been on that bus had to be close enough to take it and since I was one of the ones being investigated…_

"Lila, what're we going do now? If she links the bus incident to me because I was a prime suspect, then we're finished," I hissed, trying to keep my voice low. Lila placed a hand on her arm, still focusing on the woman.

"I know, I know." She paused a moment. "Look, we're just going to have to kidnap her and put her with the others, there's no other way." I nodded then and then thought of something obvious.

"You know," I whispered to the side, my gaze now focused on the woman's back. "This could've all been avoided if you had just let Raye Penber finish his investigation on me. Then he would've clarified my innocence to L and you wouldn't be considered a murderer of innocents by the public." She seemed to think about it for a while. Then the palm of her hand came up swiftly to meet her forehead with an audible smack.

"Damn it I'm such an idiot!" she hissed under her breath. I sighed.

"Look, the longer we stand here like this, the longer dad has to wait for his extra clothes and we look more suspicious." I tried to reason. She nodded in agreement and we started towards the front desk again with the bag of clothes.

"Hi," I spoke as if nothing was wrong. "I'm detective Soichiro Yagami's son, Light Yagami and this here is my adopted sister Lila." She gave a convincing smile and a short wave. I continued. "We've brought our father a change of clothes but it doesn't look like he's in. Can we just leave them here?" I asked politely. I noticed that Lila had blushed as I'd referred to him as "our" father. The whole concept was still foreign to her. The guy behind the counter smiled.

"Sure," he "Hey, I haven't seen you two in a while," he noted. Lila blushed again.

"Oh, I'm sorry uh," I apologized, not quite remembering him.

"What you don't remember?" he questioned amused. "You helped solve the insurance fraud murder investigation. Sometime last year, but hey, no one remembers a receptionist, do they?" he chuckled. I felt slightly embarrassed at that.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I apologized again, now recalling the memory. "But yeah, now I remember. Gosh that case was some time ago." I scratched the back of my head nervously. Lila meanwhile burst out into laughter beside me. I figured it was her way of staying calm.

"Well that's Light for ya!" she commented. "All he ever does nowadays is spend his time at school, in his room and then night school. He rarely ever shows his face except for dinner because he's always studying and I'm starting to believe he could be a vampire." The man chuckled.

"Well I guess ya can't blame him. He is trying to pass entrance exams or so I hear." Lila laughed again in agreement.

"Yeah, I guess so," she replied. "But still, I'll never understand how in this culture nobody takes the slightest bit of time for good ol' recreational activities. It's supposed to be a stress reliever. Everyone's always saying they don't have time for things but I think the most important thing to remember is that nobody lives forever, so why not enjoy their youth?" By now she was wearing a sort of faraway nostalgic look on her face. I could tell she was thinking about the olden days in her world and about her current position in this one. I shook my head and leaned forward taking up the pen on the counter.

"So I just sign my name on this form, right?" I asked and the man nodded as I began signing my signature. Then the man asked me something I wasn't prepared for.

"So Light, does this mean that you're gonna be helping us with the Kira investigation too?" I froze slightly remembering the fight I'd had with my father the other night over the matter but before I could give an honest answer, I remembered that Naomi Misora was standing right beside me. _This is perfect,_ I thought. _If I can convince her I could be working on the Kira case then we can corner and kidnap her like Lila said._ I finished signing my name.

"Sure," I said cheerily. "If all goes well, maybe I can find him before L does." I glanced to the side to Lila looking at me in shock while I could tell Naomi had heard me. Just then, the other receptionist pulled a phone from his ear and hung it up sighing before turning to the woman.

"As I thought, there's no one at headquarters. You're going to have to trust me on this ma'am. I'll be sure to get them your message as soon as I see them I promise!" he said. The woman was pulled from her reverie upon hearing the news and seemed desperate.

"That's not good enough!" she stated. "I have to tell them in person!" I could tell she was distressed and I couldn't blame her. I suppose if someone I'd cared about had died then I'd try to do everything I could to find the culprit too.

"Excuse me," I said, drawing her attention to me. She looked at me curiously. "My father is actually in charge of the Kira investigation. If you'd like, I could pass your message onto him. His cell phone is off at the moment but I should be able to contact him soon." She seemed surprised. I heard Lila scoff beside me.

"Heh, are we sure he just didn't lose his phone? Or maybe he's just ignoring us?" she stated bringing her arms up behind her head to stretch a bit. I knew she was just trying to make conversation because of how nervous this was making her. I knew I had to work fast and so my silver tongue did all the talking for me.

"No, he's probably in a meeting right now Lila," I said. "But anyway, getting back to the matter at hand, a number of FBI agents were just killed and a lot of detectives have quit the case because they're afraid of Kira so he's pretty busy right now."

"Uh Light," the receptionist leaned in to whisper to me. "It's probably better if you don't discuss this with…"

"True," I agreed interrupting. "But it's practically common knowledge at this point. Besides," I turned back to Naomi. "I feel like I can trust her, you can almost see it in her eyes; she's a wise and careful person."

"Plus if she's here risking her life when he could be watching, then I consider that outright bravery," stated Lila. Naomi blushed.

"Oh um thanks!" Lila beamed back at her.

"Oh don't mention it," she replied. I smiled at her then turned back to face Naomi again.

"You must've heard about what happened," I continued. "And you must have figured out the police had a leak of some kind and that's why you wanted to tell them in person. You definitely thought this through. Well, am I right," I questioned, lowering my eyes from her gaze. She started, gasping at the accuracy of my words. I could tell that she was a bit scared. After that, Lila perked up.

"Well, if you've got info on Kira, maybe you should find somebody trustworthy to tell!" I whirled on Lila.

"Don't be such an idiot Lila," I hissed. "You can't just take a topic like that and talk about it anywhere. Think about it, the police have already figured that Kira isn't working alone because he nagged the FBI agents both in Japan and New York in one night. He probably has eyes and ears all over the place especially here!" My words made the entire room go quiet and the receptionists looked equally shocked. Naomi began subconsciously looking around for any proof of what I'd just said. Meanwhile, Lila who'd realized I'd just pointed out another one of her mistakes; she once again smacked herself on the forehead.

"Gah, you're right, I'm sorry, you're right, I am an idiot!" she whined. I sighed, looking around subconsciously myself, not necessarily for the eyes of Kira but possibly for the eyes of L. Though I supposed they'd be well hidden. I turned to Naomi again.

"Perhaps we'd better talk elsewhere." I gestured towards the exit of the building and she nodded.

"Oh I know just the place!" Lila exclaimed excitedly. Seeing the glint in her eyes, I could tell just what she was thinking. I sighed once more. Naomi had nodded at my suggestion and we were now on our way outside.

"I'm sure my father will be calling me back once he checks his messages," I assured her. As we walked, Ryuk the Shinigami floated behind us. "When he does, I'll give you the phone and let you talk to him" She turned to me suspiciously but not showing it.

"Are you sure that's alright?" she questioned. I chuckled slightly.

"Oh yeah," I stated. "You understand why I can't just give you my father's cell phone number but I have no problem letting you use my phone to talk to him. You'll have to trust my father and I which I hope won't be too difficult for you." I then laughed slightly with a smile on my face that didn't feel all that natural. I supposed laughter was a great stress reliever though because afterwards, I felt slightly better about what was going to happen. I could tell although the emotion didn't show on her face, she was still suspicious of my actions but she then bowed in deep respect.

"Thank you so much," she said and I felt a slight twinge of guilt in my gut about having lied to her. I could tell Lila was feeling the same way too because the next moment, she had grabbed both of our hands and was dragging us both out the door.

"Good, now that that's settled, let's go wait for that phone call at one of my favourite places!" she beamed at both of us. I sighed. _Oh no,_ I thought. _I'd bet some money on where we're headed but then she's probably going to ask me to pay for it._

We then left the building, Ryuk floating along behind us and started heading to Lila's favourite milkshake bar. It was obvious she was stressed out about what she'd done already to get L closer to finding her. I smiled though because in all honesty, I was ready for a milkshake to relieve my stress too.

We walked a ways until we came to a street corner getting ready to cross. However, it was then I hadn't asked her name yet and knowing it already would make me suspicious. I turned to her again.

"You know, I don't believe I know your name," I mentioned casually. "But where are my manners, you don't know mine either. My name is Light Yagami and this is my adopted younger sister Lila Ranger," I gestured to the girl who was not only waiting for the lights to change so we could cross but she was also texting someone on her cell phone. I prayed it was Aunt Ajisai. She looked up from her texting and gave a smile and a wave before returning to what she'd been doing. Naomi meanwhile had decided to answer my question about her name.

"My name is Shoko Maki," she replied. _What,_ I thought, _an alias? But why? Hm, I suppose she'd want to keep her name from me since I was the one her fiancée was investigating before he was taken. Oh well, not important I guess._ I smiled then at her.

"Ms. Maki, right?" I asked politely she nodded. Meanwhile, Lila decided to roll the name around on her tongue.

"Hm, Shoko Maki? Huh, that's a pretty name," she beamed. Clearly she wasn't going to try to weasel out the woman's real name either since she already knew. Her phone dinged as a new text came in and I looked over her shoulder to read it. It said…

 ** _Hold Yer horses girl, I'm only a few minutes away from the city. Just hold on a while._**

Lila gave a sigh of relief as she began deleting her messages both sent and received from the inbox and outbox. Then we crossed the street and began up the other sidewalk. It didn't take us too much longer to reach the milkshake bar. Naomi eyed it both surprised and suspiciously but Lila still dragged us in.

"A Milkshake bar?" Naomi questioned. Lila turned back to beam at us again.

"Yup. Least likely place for a Kira spy right?" I smacked her upside the head. Despite her whining, I still managed to remind her not to talk so openly about such things. She pouted saying that I didn't have to hit her and ultimately just as I thought, she used that as an excuse to make me buy us all milkshakes. She ordered the Chocoholic's special while I went with a simple vanilla, chocolate swirl and Naomi despite her reluctance, settled on a strawberry flavor.

We then sat down in one of the empty booths, nearest the window. Naomi drank some of her milkshake while she looked on out the window for a while. I decided to draw her attention back to the matter at hand.

"Ms. Maki?" I started. She turned to me. "I've been thinking about Kira's powers and I believe they enable him to somehow control his victims before they die," I stated in a low voice. Her eyes widened as she leaned in. Lila was listening too although she didn't show it and was merely attacking her milkshake like no tomorrow. If she got stressed again after this she'd probably ask for another one. I sipped my own shake as Naomi spoke.

"So do I!" she admitted. "It's odd that you'd say that because that's exactly what I've been thinking. Kira's definitely able to control their actions before he kills them but there's something else too." She paused and took a nervous sip from her shake as she leaned in closer, prompting me to move in closer to hear her.

"If my analysis is so far correct, then Kira's a woman not a man!" she hissed in my ear. My heart froze and just at that moment, Lila had swallowed her milkshake wrong and was now coughing like a maniac. Finally however, she brought herself under control although Naomi had been startled.

"Are you okay?" she asked of Lila. Lila who had some tears of pain in her eyes, gave a week smile and coughed slightly again while her cheeks turned bright red.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine," she wheezed. "I just swallowed wrong is all, really! Note to self though, don't try to down a milkshake in one take through a straw." This caused Naomi to laugh slightly. I rolled my eyes wondering if she'd actually heard what Naomi had just said about Kira. Afterwards we got back to our conversation.

"Anyway, I don't think anyone else knows this yet but if the police are willing to consider it, I bet it would help them catch Kira." I nodded with understanding. From the corner of my eye, I could see Lila getting up for a refill and returned not too long after, with another milkshake. She assured me she'd already paid for it with her own savings. I had turned towards Naomi.

"You know, that thought had never actually crossed my mind. I'd always assumed Kira was male because well…I guess because everyone else does really," I admitted sheepishly. Naomi shook her head.

"No not possible. If Kira were a man then he would've used other methods to kill and they would be merciless. But I think…no I know Kira's got to be a woman because of how discreet she's trying to be with the media and she's trying to cover things up plus heart attacks are a more merciful way to kill. There's also the fact that I'm a woman and I'm familiar with female behavior." I nodded once again, sucking up more of my milkshake as I tried to think this through thoroughly.

"I suppose that makes sense," I stated. "The way a woman kills is different than the way a man would kill. I guess the concept of gender never crossed my mind." It was her turn to nod. Then a faraway look entered her eyes as she began staring out the window again.

"Also, I'm positive someone I know has come into contact with Kira." I was stunned. _Great,_ I thought. _Things are turning out just like Lila said. She knows too much and if she gives any evidence she has to the task force and L then we're done for before we even know it. Damn it and entrance exams are just around the corner, I don't have time for this! We've got to nab her today!_ I thought quickly, trying to get an idea to come into my head. Finally, one dawned on me. I nodded again to ensure myself that this was the right way to go.

"Is that so?" I asked, now being more nervous than I had before. Naomi somewhat picked up on it. Good. Lila gave me a questioning glance and I gave her a reassuring look telling her I knew what I was doing with my eyes. I turned back to Naomi. "How exactly is that believable I asked?"

"Huh?" she wondered. I laughed making it sound somewhat forced.

"I'm sorry but if a person came in saying they'd met Kira, then the police would be a little more than skeptical to say the least." I stated. Naomi turned away embarrassed and started on her milkshake once again.

"I know," she sighed. "That's why I need to explain it in person to someone from task force headquarters. Otherwise, I'm afraid they'll just write me off."

"Oh come on," Lila interjected. "Maybe if you went in with a "not gonna take any shit from you; this is serious!" attitude then I'm sure they'll believe you." She gave Lila a look of pure astonishment. I knew it was only an act.

"Lila," I sighed. "I think you've had too much sugar today. It's starting to go to your head." She stuck her tongue out at me immaturely like any little sister would do to her elder brother. I just rolled my eyes and got back on topic.

"Anyway, wouldn't it be better if your friend spoke to them instead?" I questioned. I hated having to stir up someone else's sorrowful memories but it had to be done. She looked down at the table, a small tear trickling down her cheek.

"It probably would," she admitted, "But he's no longer alive. He was one of the twelve FBI agents who came to Japan to investigate Kira." She paused and I waited. "You see, he was also my fiancée. While he was working , he got caught up in a bus jacking and I have reason to believe he met Kira on that bus." I nodded, starting to sweat now, heart hammering in my chest. In order for my plan to work, I had to get myself worked up to make it more believable. I gulped which she noticed.

"S-sorry to hear about your loss," I stammered. I could tell she was starting to ask herself the questions I wanted her to ask. "So what makes you think that he met Kira on that bus?" There was a slight pause then…

"Because, exactly eight days after that, he died along with the other FBI agents both here in Japan and in New York. The same man had attempted to rob a bank two days before he hijacked that bus then he dies in an accident but later it's revealed as a heart attack before he'd hit the street just like that. I mean really what're the odds?" she paused again, taking a breath. "I've come to believe that Kira set up that bus jacking. It was planned to bring her into contact with my fiancée in order to obtain information regarding the identities of the other FBI agents so she could get rid of them all.

"Anyway, what stands out to me is that the hijacker's death was faked to try to throw the police off Kira's trail and that it didn't work. In other words, it suggests that heart attacks might not be the only way she can kill people and she's afraid to hurt people so she gives them a more merciful end. Plus…I remember my fiancée saying that he'd been helped out in handling the hijacker by a girl who knew martial arts and was all too ready to help. I am certain that without a doubt, that same girl is Kira."

Now I didn't need to pretend to be scared. If somehow we slipped up, then Lila would definitely be caught before she'd planned to be and she'd be thrown in prison with the whole Kira case wrapped up before really getting started. I mean, then there was me, who'd helped her, I'd have to come up with some sort of story to….

 _"_ _if you do consider trying to pull such a stunt or breaking that promise;_ _if you so much as make a move that threatens her freedom or safety I'll personally be writing your name in my death note and I can assure you I've got a pretty active imagination nowadays so you can be sure the cause of your death will not be as merciful as a heart attack."_

The words Ryuk had used to threaten me the other night came back to me now making me shudder. But what really frightened me were the thoughts I'd had beforehand. Could I really abandon Lila like that, just to be free myself? I know I hadn't been working with her for long but I also knew that nevertheless I'd be questioned by both the police and my father on why I'd withheld information. Could I really risk telling them the truth? Could I really risk not to?

I could tell my newly acquired nervous behavior was not only upsetting Lila who was pretty much sweating across the way despite having drunk two full milkshakes. She'd snuck a third one I'd noticed; but I could tell I was also drawing now upon Naomi's attention. I could tell that she could now sense I had something to hide. I gulped again. Suddenly, Lila's phone buzzed and she looked at the new message. She almost sighed with relief and I could tell that Ajisai was at the meeting place. She forwarded the directions to my phone and then abruptly stood.

"Ah, well, I've got to go the ladies room," she announced. Naomi cocked an eyebrow.

"No kidding kid, you've downed three whole chocoholic special milkshakes within the last hour." Lila chuckled nervously and made her way to the restrooms. The place wasn't all that packed. I stood too grabbing Naomi's hand and pulling her up abruptly.

"What's going on, what's wrong?" she wondered in alarm. I too was nerve racked but nevertheless, I remained quiet as I pulled her along behind me towards the restrooms as well only I pulled her in with me into the family room with the one toilet and locked the door. Then I began pacing the room, breathing rashly as my heart was still pounding excitedly with stress.

"Light, what's going on?" she questioned now more than scared, hand reaching slowly towards her purse. I breathed in and out then finally sighed shakily.

"Look Naomi, believe it or not, I'm just as scared as you are but…I can't just sit by anymore." I turned to her, eyes pleading for forgiveness as though I was a lost puppy. "The thing is…I was on that same bus as your fiancée was when it was being hijacked." I waited and watched as her hands flew to her mouth in shock. I turned away again.

"That same day, I saw something," I admitted. "And because I saw it, she approached me. You were right by the way…Kira…she's a woman…a school girl in fact…and…and I know who she is." I was shaking now, more pumped up on sugar and adrenaline than I'd ever been before besides those times I'd almost died minus the sugar.

"Wait a minute," she started. "You know who Kira is?" I nodded solemnly.

"Like I said, I noticed something I shouldn't have on that day the bus was jacked and because of that, she noticed me and approached me with her group. Her power…it's terrifying and yes she did indeed help your fiancée to fight the hijacker. Then I watched helplessly as she'd murdered that man right then and there. Afterwards she warned me; told me that I was suspect in the Kira case because I was the chief's son and I'd hacked into his files once to see if I could help. She told me to mind my own business and just be a pawn and I knew she wouldn't hesitate to use me against my father and my family against the both of us."

"Wait…slow down…if you're being watched then this could be…" I shook my head.

"No, I watch them too. They've recently found out something disturbing, that L is actually working with the Japanese task force to catch Kira and they're trying to figure out what their next move is going to be. I don't know myself but I'm kind of praying my dad will let me work with them because at least then they won't be able to stop me from talking. I just…I can't take it anymore!" I banged my fist down on the counter then and Naomi placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Calm down Light. I can tell you're stressed but can't you think of any other way you can break free of them sooner? I mean, they're…no wait…she's dangling your own life and your family's safety in front of you on a hook. That's just down right despicable!" she ranted. I nodded slowly.

"Yeah and the problem is that in know where there secret meeting is going to take place today but I can't show it to anyone and…wait a minute," I said suddenly turning towards her. "Why don't I show you?"

"Who me?" she asked. I nodded.

"Yes you. Like I said before, I feel I can trust you and I already know that you're brave. Oh please, won't you say yes?" I begged.

"But Light," she protested. "This is very dangerous and even though I don't have a problem with danger myself, I don't think a high schooler like yourself should get involved any further with them."

"I know…" I said, "But…Ms. Maki…" she sighed, holding the bridge of her nose.

"Look, I can tell you're scared and you have every right to be but….oh fine I'll help you!" I let my features light up.

"Oh Ms. Maki, do you mean it? I know it's a lot to ask of you but do you really, really mean it?" She gave a somewhat enthusiastic smile and nodded.

"Yes I do and I'll tell you a secret. I used be an FBI agent myself so I honestly don't mind the danger. Oh and one more thing…that name I gave you before…it's an alias. My real name is Naomi Misora. Sorry about having to keep it a secret from you." I nodded, wiping some sweat from my brow.

"No problem," I replied. "So, Naomi…the meeting takes place in just an hour from now. Do you think we could head there now?" She gave me a smile and nodded. "Great," I said relieved. Then my face became serious. "Look Naomi, do you think you could keep this a secret from Lila… I don't want her worried and getting involved."

"Of course Light," she replied. "But if we're going to get to that meeting to spy, then we're going to have to get going as soon as possible." I nodded and with that our little bathroom meeting was adjourned and we both left it at different intervals when no one was watching so no one would get suspicious of us. We both returned to the table where Lila was now sitting once again.

"Alright Lila," I said. "Ms. Maki and I are going to walk back to the headquarters. I got call from dad and he wants to talk to her directly himself. Why don't you go home?" she looked at me with curious eyes.

"Oh yeah, okay I guess," replied. After we'd exited the milkshake bar, she turned back to us both and shouted, "See ya later Ms. Maki, It was great meeting ya and see ya at home Light!" with that, she charged off, skipping down the street towards the opposite direction. Then Naomi and I began walking back towards headquarters. About half way was when we detoured and began walking quickly towards where I knew, and hoped, Ajisai's car was waiting. Eventually, after about a half hour's walk, we wound up at a construction site which was closed down for the day and sneakily crept in past the ropes.

I led her towards the back fence where there was a big hole, large enough to crawl through and helped her through. Then we were in a dark alleyway, with only one way out. I nonchalantly walked ahead slightly, to block her escape. She looked around, slightly uneasy.

"Light, are you sure this is the place?" she questioned. "It doesn't look like a meeting could be held here." She was right of course, this looked like a poor place for any meeting to take place. Luckily, it was dark since the sun had begun to set. The alley was completely shrouded in shadows.

"This is it," I assured her. "I'm positive. These people aren't exactly professional looking when it comes to work. Most are just hoodlums and scumbags who used to rob convenience stores for their next meals." She nodded, still uneasy. I gulped. All of a sudden we were engulfed in the bright headlights of a car. I was nearly blinded.

"Shit!" I cursed. Naomi took this as a different meaning though.

"Was this part of the plan?" she questioned shielding her own eyes.

"No," I replied squinting. I heard two car doors slam and the approach of feet on blacktop.

"Well, if it isn't Light Yagami!" exclaimed a distorted voice. It sounded male and hid the fact that it was Lila's voice behind it. Their bodies in front of the headlights made it slightly better to see.

"Who…who are you?" questioned Naomi. She probably already knew and meanwhile Lila wasted no time going into a monologue about how she was Kira. I sighed to myself wondering where she found the enthusiasm to come up with such things and wondered if she'd done the same thing with Raye Penber's abduction. She then turned to me, he baggy clothing articles making it impossible to tell that it was her.

"As for you," she started and I could sense her smiling under the guise. "Thank you for bringing her here Light. It would've been troublesome if I had had to do it myself." Naomi cursed and shouted back at her.

"Why're you doing this?!" she shouted. "Why do you have to involve Light in this just let him go! You dirty rotten person, you tricked him didn't you?!" I sighed, knowing I couldn't fake my innocence forever. I placed a hand on her shoulder, a torn piece of the death note touching her as well.

"Actually Naomi," I started. She turned to me confused. "I brought you here on purpose, there was never any meeting." I looked away from her look of betrayal.

"Light but…" she began then she shouted. "I trusted you!" This made me angry and I turned and yelled at her.

"Oh yeah well maybe you shouldn't have!" I yelled back at her. "If you and your fiancée had kept your noses out of where they don't belong then none of this would've ever happened. Now just get in the car!" she leapt back from me.

"No, I won't!" she stated firmly. But that was when Ryuk made his presence known and a high pitched scream had to be siphoned by my hand as she beheld the horrible creature. I then bound her wrists behind her as quickly as I could, Lila tossing me the handcuffs as I did so. I clapped them.

"Light, how could you?" she asked now, tears flowing down her cheeks. "If your father knew then he'd…"

"Well it's a good thing he doesn't!" I snapped back "But anyway, after seeing that creature, I hope you now understand that even if you ran, you would never be safe. He'd watch you like a hawk and you'd die if you stepped out of line. See what I've had to live with?" I tried to reason with her. In truth although it was a lie, the story held some truth as Ryuk still annoyed the crap out of me because whenever he got bored of Lila watching he'd come into my room and start bugging me instead. He floated forward, grinning that horrible grin.

"Now, now Ms. Misora, don't you want to see your precious fiancée? Where you're going, you'll be reunited with him and no one will ever bother you two again. It'll be nice to be alone with him again won't it? Anyways, either you get in the car with this potato sack on your head or you die right here and now, you understand?" I shivered. If anything, Ryuk could make a threat on your life even more terrifying than if it were a mugger looking for cash.

After having considered her options, she finally caved as I helped her into the car and carefully blindfolded her not with a potato sack like Ryuk had said but with a piece of black cotton cloth. After she was sitting in the back, buckled and bound, she remained quiet and Lila approached her, whispering something in her ear. Her expression changed drastically as the car door was slammed shut. Then Lila saluted Ajisai and the man who'd accompanied her but was mute the entire time as they got back into the car. Aunt Ajisai sat beside Naomi to make sure she wouldn't try anything while the man was the driver and soon they'd driven out of the alleyway and onto the busy street, disappearing with Naomi Misora in tow towards the supposed prison facility Ajisai owned in the country. I still had no idea how she'd managed that one.

After they were gone, we walked to the nearest diner, where Lila rushed to the bathroom to change her clothes then we left and headed home after the long day. Naomi Misora had finally been taken care of but I wondered if L had come to the same conclusion as Naomi had about Kira being girl. I couldn't believe that I myself had looked that fact over.

It was then that I pledged to myself that I would have to be more attentive to Lila's future actions in order to save her from imprisonment by L's hand. The both of us had to be careful, even I had to be more careful now as I'd just assisted in a kidnapping. I sighed for like the hundredth time that day and even though it was a weekend and we still had hours to burn, I was unable to finish my homework that night. Too much had happened in to short a time. So that night I just lay there on my bed looking up towards the ceiling, thinking and pondering over the one question recurring in my head. _What's next?_

 _Lila_

I plopped down onto my bed bone tired and completely exhausted. The school day had been extremely challenging, more so than usual and I suppose that Naomi's capture might've had something to do with it but I couldn't be sure. Plus there was the whole Light getting involved with Kira situation which had me scared out of my mind. I know he'd promised never to write in the death note, to never use it and leave it all up to me. However, I knew that deep down the same Light that had been Kira lurked and if he was awakened then he was take over Light's mind and I could end up next on the kill list if I wasn't careful.

Although despite that fear, I had still promised him to keep that from happening at all costs. Plus it wasn't that bad that he was so smart either and the fact that I'd already made so many mistakes thus far that could've gotten me caught if I'd been any more careless. I had to keep myself vigilant now and keep ahead of this dark menace known as Kira even though Kira was me.

Silently, I'd been wondering to myself if L had figured out that Kira could be a girl. Naomi had figured it out right away and had almost given me away. If it hadn't been for Light's great acting skills although I still had to admit that dragging a woman into a family bathroom was slightly disturbing; then I'd have been doomed. He probably could've gotten off the handle with the lie of "I had no idea" or something. Then he'd be completely innocent while I was thrown in jail and possibly executed. The thought frightened me.

Nevertheless, many thoughts similar to those went through my head as I lied there all night and into the next morning, not really being able to speak. Then after school, Light and I arrived home expecting to walk straight in but the door was locked.

"Huh, what's this? No one's home?" he questioned. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Maybe your mom went shopping or something?" I questioned.

"Maybe," he said somewhat distracted as he pulled out his house key and unlocked the door. We walked in and I stretched towards the ceiling yawing.

"Man what a day anyway," commented. "I'm beat." Light chuckled behind me, pocketing his key again.

"Well what do you expect? You were up practically all night again last night doing homework and you never even finished it. I bet anything you were watching cartoons online again weren't you?" he accused. I gasped dramatically and brought a hand up to my chest.

"Why Light, I've never been more insulted in my life. How could you say I've been doing nothing with my time but watching cartoons? I take more pride in my school work than that, I just couldn't understand it last night is all." He laughed again.

"Yeah, tell that to Mr. Kurasama next time you forget to hand in homework. I'd love to see his reaction."

"Shut-up!" I squeaked as my voice pitched up an octave. This only made him laugh harder as he began taking off his shoes and putting on his slippers. I'd already done so, turning on my heel and heading into the kitchen. I opened the fridge as Light called out to see if anyone else was in the house.

"Hey, we're home!" he called. There was no answer. It was around this point as I was searching through the fridge for a stress relieving sugary snack that I got the sudden feeling like I was being watched by eyes that couldn't be seen. I began to sweat and glumly closed the fridge as I realized there was nothing really inside. Then I headed over to the junk food cupboard and took down a few bags of chips and gummies. Then I headed up to my room, passing Light's along the way. He peeked out into the hallway.

"What, are you having a party?" he teased. I glared at him.

"Shut-up and no! I just so happen to be stress eating because finals are coming soon and I've never been more afraid of knowledge in all my life!" He rolled his eyes and ducked back into his room to begin his studying not only for the final exams on their way but the entrance exams for the college he wanted to get into. I heard his door shut as I shut my own. Then once again, I plopped myself down onto my bed, school bag and all.

I then got down to studying, all the while feeling as though I was being watched. Ryuk didn't count though since I could see him too but something about the feeling felt odd and bothersome. Ryuk too could sense it, I could tell and he almost picked up an apple on my nearby desk until I snatched it from him, realization dawning on me immediately.

Cameras! After the Naomi incident, L had installed cameras and I had no doubt in my mind that that was what was going on here. I was being watched, Light was being watched. L was watching me and so was Mr. Yagami. I wondered then if Light felt the same way. Meanwhile Ryuk had gotten angry at me

"Hey, that was mine!" he complained. I didn't answer him though as I suddenly rushed from the room and knocked on Light's door. He opened it and I could tell he'd been thinking deeply about something.

"Yes, what is it?" he wondered.

"Um, well…" oh man how did I tell him without alerting L. Thinking fast I said, "Milkshakes!"

"Huh?"

"Milkshakes!" I repeated. "I just realized that the only stress reliever for me right now has got to be milkshakes so do you wanna come?" He looked deep into my pleading eyes for a few seconds.

"But we just got home and you want one now?" he asked.

"Yes, you know I can't take this studying and in order for me to succeed, I need sugar." He sighed.

"I dunno Lila, if you ask me, sugar can be very bad for you if you're not careful and the amount you consume daily and most recently is kind of worrisome." I scowled. Ryuk came out then and thankfully he understood so he spared me the desperate pleading scene. All I had to do now was put my hands into a begging stance.

"Actually, I think she's trying to tell you something important concerning Kira in a place that doesn't feel dangerous." He stated. I made puppy dog eyes.

"Pwease!" I begged, quivering my lower lip some and whining like a dog would. He sighed heavily and caved. He looked back up at me with a smile.

"Oh alright. I suppose one milkshake couldn't hurt. But I'm going to bring something to study while we're at the restaurant ok?" I saluted him jokingly.

"Whatever you say chief! And I'll even pay this time." He chuckled as he turned around to go get his notes.

"Heh, good cuz you still owe me from the last time. You nearly cleaned out my wallet." And with that, we both got changed into comfier clothes, Light grabbed his book bag and I grabbed my own that held my school notes, song lyrics, fictional stories, drawings and of course the death note and it's fellow notebooks I'd given it. Afterwards, Light wrote a note to leave for Sayu or his mom to read when they got home to let them know where we were and we set out, once again locking the door.

Once we'd arrived and we'd secured a booth, I'd ordered our shakes; even one for Ryuk; and finally after a few slurps I finally looked up at Light with a serious face. He too gave me a serious look.

"Okay Lila, what's going on? When we were at the house, I felt like I was being watched and I know you two felt it too," he said looking between me and Ryuk. I sighed.

"Well since the Naomi incident is over, L has placed wire taps and cameras in the house at every angle to watch us closely in order to determine if anyone is Kira. Since Raye Penber was investigating us…uh you…and since L knows Naomi from the BB murder case that was mentioned…"

"BB murder case?" Light wondered. I sighed again, annoyed that I'd been interrupted.

"Some guy who was supposed to replace L if he ever died but turned evil or something, I don't know, it was never properly explained in the anime. But anyway, since he knew that Naomi would never commit suicide and since we didn't have time to fake her death, she only went missing and L began to suspect someone Raye Penber had been following."

"Once again, you could've let it go," he commented. I flushed.

"I know, I know, I was careless and I'm sorry. But this is important. For the next little while the wire taps and cameras will be watching us like hawks. I can't remember just how many there were so Ryuk it's up to you find them since they can't see you."

"Okay, fine, but if that's the case why'd you swipe my apple earlier?" he complained again. I glared at him wondering just how stupid he could be and having to remind myself that he didn't understand humans that well.

"Because they would've seen the apple dummy. Do you really think it's wise to let them in on the supernatural part of our little story?" I hissed. He huffed.

"Heh, fine, but I hope this doesn't mean what I think it means," he replied.

"Sorry Ryuk," Light apologized as he slurped his own milkshake. "But until further notice you won't be allowed any apples in the house or near it."

"What!" the Shinigami snipped.

"Hey, don't worry Ryuk," I reassured him. "If you want apples you can always eat them outside or better yet drop by Ajisai's once in a while. Sure she'd be annoyed but at least then you'd get apple pie or something." He took this into consideration.

"Hm, I suppose so." He said. I turned back to Light then who'd pulled out his homework.

"I suppose then that the plan is to just act natural for the time being and not to speak to Ryuk when he's around inside?" he asked. I nodded. "And what about the death note, how do you plan to keep writing in it?" He'd begun to do his homework now and I was astounded and slightly envious that he could be focused on two things at once.

"Hum, I suppose I'll just have to restrain from using it in the house. I could always try using it in school but then my teachers would see it because they're paying more attention to the students who're sort of failing now so they can help them graduate." Light smiled.

"Well in that case, I guess we'll be hanging out here a lot." He stated. I hadn't thought about that before but I nodded. I could also use it in the public library when I went next time to check out a book I liked reading.

I smiled back as we continued slurping our milkshakes and Light began doing his homework. Then since we were in the booth, as soon as he was finished, which was pretty quick, he'd slid over next to mean and got me to do mine as well.

That night at dinner, it was rather quiet except for Sayu watching one of her favourite films. Meanwhile, Light, Mrs. Yagami and I were at the dinner table.

"I love you…always!" said the handsome movie actor from the television. Sayu got closer to the TV to watch him closer.

"Oh Hideki Ryuga," she stated, completely drawn in by the drama. "I swear he's perfect! How come no one in my class is like that?" she questioned dreamily. I snorted and spoke the answer I'd just come up with.

"Heh, because they're under developed," I laughed at my own wit and Mrs. Yagami joined me for a short spell. Then she turned to her daughter.

"Sayu dear," she said. "Please just eat your dinner."

"I'll eat later," she responded. I thought of a trick to get her to the table.

"Not if I eat it first along with your dessert," I threatened. I started reaching for her plate and noticing she rushed over to the table and smacked my hand away, taking her dinner plate with her into the living room. I laughed as did Mrs. Yagami slightly.

"I usually don't allow it but with the way she carries on nowadays I suppose one night eating on the couch won't harm anything," she sighed. Light looked up and over to his sister.

"As long as she actually eats something," he stated. He rolled his eyes. Then the conversation turned to us as Mrs. Yagami spoke.

"So you two are spending an awful lot of time at that milkshake bar downtown. I hope you're making time for your studies."

"What, of course," I reassured her although she didn't look that convinced. Then Light spoke up in my defense.

"We actually took our school work with us this time and we got a lot more done than usual, especially Lila," he stated giving me a look.

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?!" I demanded to know.

"Oh well that's good," Mrs. Yagami stated. "I'm glad you two found a place to study easily."

"Yeah, in fact we were thinking of taking our studies there after school from now on so maybe Lila can finally get her grades up. Who knew the power of milkshakes could be so effective," he joked. I flushed red.

"Oh shut-up! I do my best when it comes to school and you know it! Sure I won't get into any top notch university but at least I'll be able to graduate high school." I crossed my arms over my chest like I would've done as a kid and started pouting.

"Oh come on Lila," Light pressed. "I was only teasing. You're going to do just fine so don't you worry about a thing." I pouted away from him.

"Whatever you say oh great genius mind of Galvan Prime," I said sarcastically, referring to the cartoon Ben Ten which thankfully, I'd been able to find in this world and which I'd watched all the way through finally.

Light just laughed with his mother laughing with him and eventually I started laughing some too as Sayu remained in the living room, eyes glued to the screen and watching Hideki Ryuga which sort of set off a warning bell in my head for some reason but I had no idea why. For the night, I just let all of my cares slip away although I remained vigilant at all times of the cameras and wire taps surrounding us. that is until the new message appeared on the television screen.

"Huh, what's this?" Sayu wondered then started reading. "ICPO? They're saying that in response to the Kira murders, Interpol has decided to dispatch a force of fifteen hundred investigators to Japan. The investigators were drawn from the law enforcement agencies of its member nations. Fifteen hundred investigators? Woah!" she exclaimed. Light was alert although he didn't show it and thankfully, I'd seen this one coming thanks to my other worldly knowledge of this world.

"Fifteen hundred investigators?" Light wondered aloud. "Huh, a bit excessive if you ask me. Are they really that scared of Kira?" He looked to me for confirmation that his thoughts on this being a hoax were correct. I sighed, putting another mouthful of potatoes into my mouth.

"Oh please, I doubt they'd send fifteen hundred investigators, I mean come on, Kira's probably not so stupid as to fall for this again," I stated. Sayu looked over at me curiously.

"Again?" she questioned.

"Yeah, think about it. That stunt that the world's great detective L pulled with Lind L Tailor, now this? Don't you think Kira would see through it this time. He must've learned his lesson from the last time right? I mean come on. If I were Kira, I wouldn't react recklessly when it came to the media."

"Oh," Sayu said, seeming to get my point. Then Light added on.

"Lila's right," he said, agreeing with me. "I mean, how stupid can the ICPO get? If they were going to send that many investigators out then shouldn't they be keeping it secret? If the FBI agents who were investigating secretly were killed by Kira, then why would this be any different? If you ask me, this is nothing more than a desperate attempt to shock Kira in the hopes he'll reveal himself somehow. Quite frankly I wouldn't be surprised if Kira saw right through this. Otherwise, they're just hoping Kira reacts rashly again."

"Mm hm," I said, confirming it. "There ya have it. I mean if a couple of high schoolers could figure it out, who's to say Kira won't. And another thing," I started, deciding to make it really interesting. "I wonder why those people out there chose the name Kira for this guy, I mean sure it means Killer but it's also an actual name ya know. Did whoever came up with it think of that. I feel bad for the girls out there who're actually called Kira." I supposed that last bit was the sugar kicking in again but I didn't care. Light chuckled at that and we all finished our dinners and eventually went up to bed while Light went to night school.

The next day was when Light and I started our daily milkshake bar routine and so on and so forth. After that, all we had to do was keep an eye and ear out for any hints that the cameras and wiretaps were gone and honestly, it wasn't all that bad. We just had to forget about the death note while we were at home. And this was how we spent the next few days.

 _L_

It'd had been only a few days since I'd ordered the implantations of wire taps and cameras within both the Yagami and Kitamura households. So far we hadn't turned up anything, however, I'd been drawn towards paying more attention to Chief Yagami's eldest son Light Yagami. All he really did was study. However, I was still more suspicious of Light than anyone else, even if it was just instinctual feeling towards that comment he'd made the first night at dinner that night.

Now we were on our third night and still nothing had happened yet to cause suspicion. I decided that on this third night, I would turn my attention towards the adopted daughter of the household, Lila Ranger. The story went that her parents and family had died in a terrorist attack on a plane that had crash landed in the Kanto region not too long ago and the girl had been found close by. She'd woken up in the hospital a few days later claiming to be from Canada and that her parents must still be there. It was only after the police chief who'd found her mentioned they didn't exist in Canada that she'd started to change her story.

Afterwards she'd been adopted into the Yagami household as a sister to both Light Yagami and Sayu Yagami and this had happened almost a whole year ago now. I wondered how Mr. Yagami had reached the decision to adopt her when she could've easily lived on her own or have been sent to a foster home.

She'd entered her room now after a long day at school and drop by the milkshake bar she so adored. Apparently it was the only way she could study properly and it actually seemed to be doing wonders. I already knew she wasn't planning on entering college or university in the near future because her grade average would only be enough to get her out of high school but still, she did hold a promising future ahead of her.

At some point in the night when she wasn't studying extra or finishing homework or guzzling down sweets, she'd be either writing in different coloured notebooks, stories, poetry or even song lyrics or she'd be working on her computer with the sound program she'd downloaded a while ago before the investigation began and she'd be recording her voice with music she'd been able to forge together from the program itself. It was clear she couldn't play an instrument but she did have a lovely soprano voice and quite frankly, I loved listening to it as it somewhat calmed my nerves after a long day of work and I could tell that Mr. Yagami felt the same way. I had no doubt that if she wanted to she could probably become a famous pop singer.

Now however, she was under surveillance and I was eyeing the monitor expectantly. Mr. Yagami, despite his better efforts, had fallen asleep beside me as he'd worked too many all-nighters in a row. He snored soundly and I remained focused on the screen as I was drinking my own milkshake.

She'd placed her headphones on and had set up the microphone. Then she started singing the song Titanium, a famous song from North America that'd been in the top hits at one time and still was on most radio stations. In all honesty, I hadn't really heard the song myself all the way through and I had to admit that her voice was well suited to it. She finally came to the chorus.

 _"_ _I'm bullet proof, nothing to loose_

 _Fire away, fire away_

 _Ricochet, you take your aim_

 _Fire away, fire away_

 _You shoot me down but I won't fall_

 _I am titanium_

 _You shoot me down but I won't fall_

 _I am titanium_

I listened intently, loving how angelic her voice sounded as it raised in pitch, following the notes. However there was something about the lyrics she was singing that seemed to bug me for some reason. I wondered if it could only be my imagination. I continued to listen as she went through it. She finally finished recording and took a sip of water from her water bottle. Then she started to replay it through only her headphones so only she could hear.

She fiddled a bit with her computer and got whatever she was working on in order. Then she hit record again, this time starting off from the second verse, obviously adjusting her pitch slightly so it would fit with the rest of the song.

 _"_ _Cut me down_

 _But it's you who'll have further to fall_

 _Ghost town, haunted love_

 _Raise your voice, sticks and stones may break my bones_

 _I'm talking loud not saying much"_

She went through the song again after she'd finished recording. Then she fixed what she needed and the process repeated itself. Finally she started off once more and it was the third verse before the last chorus.

 _"_ _Stone-hard, machine gun_

 _Firing at the ones who run_

 _Stone-hard, as bullet proof glass!"_

Then finally after she'd finished one more round of fixing and editing, she seemed pleased with her work. She gave a curt nod and saved the file, finally turning off the computer and turning on the television. Then for the next hour, she began watching an American station which showed a select bunch of cartoons on it. Finally, Mrs. Yagami came up and knocked on her door to tell her to try and get some more sleep for the upcoming finals. She gave a sheepish smile as she hadn't been studying as hard and finally listened to her and proceeded to change into her pajamas.

I looked away of course, as I'd done often with the girls. Then she climbed into bed and turned out the lights. The next hours were of her sleeping and I watched until I realized Light had been home for hours and I'd forgotten to observe him. I decided I'd watch the file footage again later.

The next day was pretty much the same thing, only this time, Lila wasn't working on her music, she was souly watching cartoons and eating potato chips. This time, the chief was awake. He turned to me with a worried glance hoping I hadn't seen anything suspicious looking that he'd missed. We watched a while longer. Then Lila seemed to get an idea as we heard her giggle slightly and then clear her throat. She became serious instantaneously.

"I'll take this potato chip," she started in an intense, dramatic tone, "And eat it!" and then she bit into it, jerking her head to the side as if she were a potato chip carnivore. she continued eating it, putting the rest in her mouth. Then she groaned and fell backwards on her bed with a whiny tone rising in her throat.

"Awn, I thought that would sound cooler than it actually did!" she complained aloud to no one. I raised an eyebrow, speaking up to Mr. Yagami.

"She's an odd one, isn't she?" I stated. Mr. Yagami sighed drastically.

"Well I suppose you could just call her unique in that sense." He replied.

"Hm," I hummed to myself. "Unique huh? Yeah, if anything she's definitely not as intelligent as your son." And with that all talking ceased as we both monitored the television screens in front of us. This pattern continued on through another day and finally, I hadn't seen anything else that would've revealed Kira. However, I was positive now that I had my two main suspects.

"In the past few days, I've listened to all our audio recordings and reviewed the video footage we captured," I said one morning to the task force. "I've gone over them many times and I've come to a conclusion. Our surveillance of the Kitamura and Yagami households has revealed…nothing…" They investigators sighed in relief especially Chief Yagami. However, I wasn't quite done. "Big," I finished. They all gazed at me surprised as I popped a chocolate and peanut butter sweet into my mouth.

"Big?" questioned Aizawa. "What do you mean by nothing big?" I finished licking my fingers in order and turned to address them.

"Well, during our observance of the two family's I noticed something fairly minor but still relevant within the Yagami household." The investigators gasped.

"Wait, when was this Ryuzaki?" Mr. Yagami demanded. "I don't remember you ever pointing it out to me."

"Mm yes, well you were asleep that day of surveillance and I hadn't figured it out until I'd reviewed the footage later." I placed my thumb on my lip, a natural habit while the chief seemed not to be too happy. I guess I couldn't blame him. The notion that someone close to him could be Kira must be terrifying.

"So tell me, do you suspect my son more now?" he pressed. I looked at him curiously.

"Actually, while I do still suspect your son, I've also come to suspect your adopted daughter, what was her name again…ah yes Lila right?"

"Lila?!" exclaimed the chief and Matsuda together.

"But Ryuzaki, how could she be Kira?" Matsuda questioned. Clearly he was against the idea himself.

"Now listen here Ryuzaki," the chief stated. "Lila is a good girl, granted not as smart as the average Japanese high school student but still, she's much too kind hearted for such a cruel thing." I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

"Please chief, you're jumping to the wrong conclusion," I reassured. "Aren't you even going to let me tell you all what I found out?" The chief and the other investigators glanced at one another then back to me and nodded.

"Good," I said. "Then here it is. The reason I suspect her is because of Titanium." This earned me some fairly odd and questioning looks.

"Titanium?" questioned Matsuda.

"What's that got to do with anything?" asked Aizawa.

"I'll tell you," I stated. "Titanium is a hit song created in North America. While I was observing the Yagami household, it was at an interval time period where Light Yagami the eldest son was at night school and Lila was in her room alone upstairs. Instead of doing homework like Light does, she normally only attempts it then switches to some form of entertainment for herself. On this particular night, she was recording a cover of the North American hit Titanium in her room on a computer software program."

"Okay, but what does that prove?" asked Aizawa again with a cocked eyebrow. They were extremely confused.

"Well, as you all well know, a while ago, Kira tested his powers on inmates in prison, controlling three of them before their actual death by heart attack. One man had drawn an animated picture of a piece of cake with eyes and devil horns; one escaped and evaded the police for a certain amount of time before running into a subway terminal one day, drawing the attention of several authorities before dying of a heart attack and the last one, had written a letter that was incomprehensible." The others nodded, trying to follow where I was going with this.

"Well," I continued, "That wasn't the only time. Sometime later, another letter came and what I'd managed to decipher from it was the challenging sentence that has set me on edge ever since it came about which is, "Hey L, guess what? I love cake too". Now I'm not sure if it's coincidence or not but I'm certain that somehow, Kira might know a few things about me already as he already knew that I love cake. Then upon further examination of the letters, I realized that they were actually jumbled up song lyrics. I read them over again and there's no doubt that the Lyrics belong to the North American song, Titanium."

The others seemed to understand but still not quite. I then pulled out the copies of the letters I'd made for them to read along with the lyrics to the song so they could compare.

"As you can see, they're chopped up. Some of the letters are just the middle of a line or a word in the song and some are full liners but nevertheless, they're still the same lyrics as on the printouts." I explained and Matsuda looked up at me.

"Okay but still, how can we be sure?" he questioned.

"Well look at it this way. We know that Kira is a rash thinker, probably coming up with and executing plans from the top of his head when panicked. Let's think what he might think while he's bored, perhaps it's the same thing. We've already confirmed Kira is childish and Naïve as well as a student. Plus I brought forth my own theory that Kira might be a female. What if he or rather she in this case starts working on a cover for a song or something on her computer, meanwhile she's taking lives at different intervals?

"Think about what happens when you hear a good song on the radio again and again. It becomes a repetition in your mind and perhaps, it follows you everywhere you go. Now Mr. Yagami, I know that you haven't been at home a lot but think back, do you remember your adopted daughter working on this song in her room at any time?" The chief sat back and thought about it.

"Now that you mention it, I would sometimes hear her working on musical related things in her room and I do believe I've heard the song in question being played. If I can remember correctly, she started the project a bit before the police started considering Kira's attacks as actual murders and she continued working on it whenever she had free time." I nodded.

"Then that means she's been working on it in stages with other things like school filling out her schedule. Now, imagine that Kira goes to write these letters, only thinking of the message he or she wishes to send to me. Then she or he realizes that she needs to put in more, believing it to make it more tricky and so she or he writes out the lyrics of the song he or she has been working on; has been singing for quite some time and can't think of anything else to write because it's too constant in his or her head."

The task force came to understand my reasoning. I reached forward, aiming for another sweet that was close by and popped it in my mouth. "Of course," I continued. "This isn't exactly enough to convict her directly, in fact I bet a lot of girls her age probably sing famous songs from all over the world despite their language. However, the chances of her being Kira because of this lie around three or three point five percent. Of course, I also still suspect your son but regardless we'll remove the wire taps and surveillance cameras immediately." The task force seemed to breathe an uncertain sigh of relief except of course the chief. I guess I couldn't blame him since I'd openly admitted to suspecting both his adopted daughter and son of being a mass murderer.

"So then," the chief started slightly angered. "How do you plan on revealing anything now? It would make more sense to maintain the surveillance wouldn't it?" I could tell he was upset so he wasn't thinking rationally. I shook my head and leaned forward to pick up my tea cup in front of me, stirring in some sugar in the process.

"As I said, though our surveillance revealed a small thing, we still managed to uncover nothing else. I'm fairly positive if our Kira was among either of the two families, he wouldn't make it obvious even if he felt some sense of security. In fact, even if Kira is as naïve as we've come to believe, then perhaps he or she would try to hold up appearances everywhere especially if they were living under the same roof as a policeman. This could mean that he or she had thought it out beforehand and since he or she knows I the great detective L is on the case then he or she could've figured out a way to kill without doing anything outwardly suspicious to heighten his or her sense of security."

"Well, then you do believe Kira is among one of those families?" the questioned having taken up a more worried tone than before. I glanced at him as I brought my tea to my lips.

"As I said," I stated. "There's a five point five percent chance!" I took a sip of my tea but brought it back down and began stirring in some more sugar cubes. I brought the spoon out again and took another sip, this time satisfied with the sugar ratio. Soon the room became silent around me as I entered into a deep thinking trance.

It was true what I'd said before, despite our surveillance, Kira hadn't stopped killing anyone. I still hadn't been able to figure out how he or she could possibly be killing them but what if he or she could kill someone by simply wishing death upon them? One would think that any human being would at least show some sign of emotion that showed they knew they were committing an act of murder. Then that would make the obvious conclusion that Kira couldn't be one of them…however what if he was one of these people we'd been watching? This could mean that his or her psyche has reached God like proportions. Punishing evil doers without the slightest change of expression; it almost makes one want to believe that Kira didn't exist; that this was just the wrath of a vengeful God!

I stopped myself there as I placed my tea cup back down on its saucer on the coffee table. _But that idea is completely absurd_ , I thought to myself, _to think that God would need a person's name and face to kill them? No this isn't the act of God but someone who wants to pretend to be God who's naïve, childish and immature. However, in the case of Lila…_ I then thought back to when I'd been surveying her. She had always seemed to be stressed out enough to sneak off to her so called favourite milkshake bar or sneak sweets up to her room. In fact most of her nature seemed to come across as childish and immature with some overwhelming embarrassment and politeness at times as though she didn't really belong with the family and was merely a guest who didn't wish to be caught doing something wrong for fear of scorn and punishment.

 _Perhaps then Kira doesn't think that he or she is god,_ I thought to myself. I brought my thumb up and placed it on my lip, yet another thinking habit I'd adopted. I continued pondering as I stared at my reflection in the tea. _Perhaps Kira only commits murder…because she feels compelled to do so or else something might happen. Maybe Kira is at war within herself feeling conflicted but that would mean someone's threatened her to do this, that she's being manipulated by someone or perhaps something else. But then…that only raises the questions…who or what is it and what is my next move?_

 _Lila_

I swayed back and forth on my feet happily humming one of my favourite tunes to myself just outside the building. Why I was so happy couldn't have been more obvious to anyone. I Lila Ranger, probably the worst possible senior in high school when it came to grades had against all odds passed the final exams and now only two days afterwards, I was rearing to go to the milkshake bar again with Light so that we could celebrate both of our successes.

Ultimately, he'd taken his finals and entrance exams and had passed both and hadn't needed me to tell him he would do so either. I was beaming with excitement at the idea of a good milkshake again after all of the stress of all of that homework and studying plus having to write in the death note. In fact I was thinking that I'd change up the flavors this time and order something from the fruity menu instead of mainly the chocoholic's one. Ryuk was floating nearby observing my cheery behavior.

"Wow you seem to be in a good mood today," he commented, stating the obvious. "Does this mean I can have another one of those apple flavored milkshakes?" I continued swaying and beaming like a silly school girl and replied with an "Mm hm!" that wouldn't sound too suspicious to passersby.

"Oh goody," he replied. "I can't wait. Where's Light anyway? He's taking forever." I stopped swaying and looked around the inside of the campus, to see if I could see him. Ryuk was right, the entrance ceremony or whatever was taking forever. I wondered if I should go in and start looking for him. Then I decided against it as I was too happy outside enjoying the nice weather.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, I finally saw Light exiting the building. I got excited and ran to him.

"Hey Light!" I called getting his attention. "How'd it go? Did ya give a good speech?" Light seemed surprised and slightly disturbed by my greeting and I immediately guessed he'd been thinking deeply about something. However, after a while he gave me a hesitant weak smile.

"Heh, yeah, I guess so. I'm not sure that many people were listening though. In fact I got to give a speech alongside another freshman." His smile came across as not only forced but nervous and right then I knew something was wrong but I couldn't think of what. Suddenly my good feeling from before had left me and now I felt as uneasy as what Light was probably feeling.

"Light…what happened in there?" I asked concerned now. He reached back and scratched the back of his head.

"Um…well…"

"Hey Light!" another voice called from behind him. He somewhat flinched but no one could tell from a distance. Since I'd learned about how to sense aura from Ajisai, I could feel that his was currently threaded with fear and distress at the moment and I knew that wasn't good. I turned towards where the voice had come from and saw a slouched man wearing a baggy pair of blue jeans and a baggy long sleeved white shirt. His hair was messy, unkempt and black while his skin looked rather pale as though he hadn't seen a lot of sun in his years. He also had some wrinkles and under his eyes were dark, dark circles as though he hadn't been sleeping well. I suddenly froze as realization hit me.

L! I'd forgotten about him. I'd completely forgotten that he'd be attending the ceremony to get close to Light and what's more, because of my forgetfulness, I hadn't told Light so he wouldn't end up freaking out like I'd planned earlier. I felt really sorry for him now as I'd let him go through a near panic attack. Nevertheless, despite my knowledge of L's presence in front of us, I knew I had to act natural. It wasn't too hard since he was one of my favourite characters.

"Oh hi there, are you one of Light's friends?" I asked cheerily while giving my best smile that wasn't considered overkill. L seemed surprised to see me at first then answered coming closer.

"Actually, we've only just met but since we both got into the same university, I guess it means we'll be seeing quite a lot more of each other." I nodded. Then Light seemed to feel the necessity to introduce me.

"Oh uh, Ryuga…" he started. "This is my younger adopted sister Lila Ranger." L looked from me to him and back again then nodded his head acknowledging me.

"Hi there, My name is Hideki Ryuga. It's very nice to meet you Ms. Ranger." I blushed red at his introduction. The fan girl part of me was going "Woo hoo", while the Kira part of me was saying, "This is bad, really bad, stop cheering you lunatic". Nevertheless I still couldn't get over the fact that L was speaking to me. Suddenly a fancy black car pulled up and an old man stepped out.

L or rather Ryuga as was his current alias, walked towards the car, turning back to the both of us.

"Well it was really nice to meet the two of you," he stated. I pulled myself out of my stupor.

"Uh, yeah, nice meeting you too," I replied in a daze.

"The honor's all mine," Light nodded. Ryuga...L...nodded again and stepped into the black car.

"Well I guess I'll see you on campus then. Goodbye!" he stated.

"Uh, yeah take care," Light responded somewhat distracted. The car door was shut by the old man who I knew could only be Watari, L's caretaker. Then he got back into the car and they drove away, leaving us there in stunned silence with Ryuk floating nearby, eying us both curiously. After a while, I finally broke the awkward silence.

"Milkshake bar?" I asked watching after the car.

"Milkshake bar," Light confirmed as he turned away from the direction of the car and we both walked to the downtown milkshake bar in silence. Once there, I wasn't in the mood to change from my chocoholic ways anymore so I ended up with death by chocolate; ironic, I know; and began slurping it up through the straw while Light had gotten a sour green apple flavor for himself and Ryuk. Finally after a while of silent slurping I finally stopped and looked up at him apologetically.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. "I completely forgot he was going to be there. I guess I was just too happy with my actually graduating high school that it slipped my mind." He stopped slurping his own milkshake and sighed.

"No it's okay, really," he said. "It just really caught me off guard and I almost gave myself away. It's a good thing I'm a calm thinker in tough situations, I guess that's what saved me." I still felt bad despite his reassurance.

"He said he thought I'd be good enough to join the Kira investigation though," he continued. "I wonder how my dad would react to that?" I gave a weak smile.

"He'd probably be against it but at least he'd have the reassurance that you'd be safer working with L in secrecy." he nodded, staring into space out the window, watching as the cars went by but not really. His mind was elsewhere. Meanwhile Ryuk conspicuously slurped up his own milkshake.

"So wait," he mumbled with the straw in his mouth. "You're telling me that L the detective who's trying to catch you was in that assembly and now he wants you to join the Kira investigation?" he asked.

"Yes," Light replied closing his eyes gently and pinching the bridge of his nose. "He was in the exam hall too. He got into trouble for sitting in his chair wrong. Then after we gave our speeches, he told me he knew a lot about me and then introduced himself as L in a whisper. At first it was too unbelievable but after Lila just called him L, I guess he really was who he said he was." He let out a heavy sigh then brought himself to face me with a serious look in his eyes.

"This is undoubtedly his way of testing us or rather me to see if his suspicions are correct. So Lila…what're we going to do?" he asked, holding my gaze with his own. I went back to slurping my milkshake, recalling what had happened before.

"Well last time…he approached you the same way and you got mad because he'd humiliated you. Then you decided you'd get close to him in order to bring him down just the same way he'd planned to bring you down." Light furrowed his brow, calling my attention. He closed his eyes again, pinching the bridge his nose too.

"Lila…could you maybe not talk as though I was the enemy here?" he asked. "It's kind of unsettling. It might've been true in another timeline but it's different now." I flinched realizing he was right. I sometimes kept forgetting that he wasn't the same Light as before.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Sorry. I'll just refer to it as the first Kira or something then, how's that?" he nodded, accepting that and I continued. "Well anyway, the first Kira wanted to get close to L and eventually ended up on the task force with everyone else. I'm thinking…in order to deal with L, we might have to execute the same method as before only this time, we won't aim to kill him."

"Just to imprison him with the others," Light finished. I nodded.

"Yep that's it. We're going to have to fake L's death and send him out with Ajisai. However we can't get caught so…" I looked up at him with a new pleading fire burning in my eyes and held him in a new gaze of my own that caused him to become confused.

"Light, you're going to have to get accepted on the task force by L." He just held me with an unamused look upon his features.

"Great and how am I supposed to do that? Dad doesn't want me risking my life and L will be watching me like a hawk on campus." I sat back crossing my arms across my chest.

"Well duh, you don't have to prove that you're desperate to get on, you just have to raise L's suspicions of you slightly and just because he's thinking along the same lines in terms of catching Kira, he'll accept you onto the task force so he can investigate you further and since you're not Kira, he'll finally conclude that and move on to a new suspect with your help." Light sat back to think about what I'd just said.

"It sounds kind of risky," he finally said. "But then again this entire situation is risky. Plus if I can get closer to the investigation, I can keep him off your back and throw suspicion onto someone else. While all of this is going on, we'll be able to contact Ajisai and then at the right moment, we'll strike. But how are we going to fake his death?" I shrugged.

"I just figured we'd leave that all up to Ajisai, I mean look at what she was able to do with the FBI agents in one night with Ryuk's help." He rolled his eyes at me, laughing a bit.

"For a second there I thought you'd actually been hiding your real intelligence this whole time but after that last statement I guess it was just dumb luck!" I flushed red and meanwhile Ryuk had finished his milkshake and was laughing at Light's small joke.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I demanded, my voice jumping an octave. Light had begun laughing too at my reaction.

"Just that you're thankfully the same old Lila, my little sister." I stopped then, feeling a tug on my heart. It hadn't been the first time he'd called me his sister but this time, he sounded thankful that I was. I smiled then as he continued laughing a laugh that was filled with natural cheer rather than terrifying insanity. It was a laugh I had never heard from him before, especially in the old series.

After our time spent at the milkshake bar which hadn't been all about dealing with L or me as Kira but had actually gotten us talking about other topics, we made our way home, our moods lifted from the chat. That night we had a good dinner and despite my having to write a few more names down in the death note, I was able to find happiness again when Mrs. Yagami put on a movie for us all, including the chief when he got home, to watch our troubles away.

That night as I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling, Ryuk floated near my bed and watched me for a while. Finally he cleared his throat.

"So Lila," he started. "This whole thing with L…how're you going to go about it? I mean technically you're making Light do all of the work for you." I sighed closing my eyes for a moment.

"Well I can't be the "inside man"," I stated. "I'm not smart enough to work alongside L. I'd be caught right away and I know I can't be caught until a certain point in the story. This is the only way I can kidnap L without raising suspicion of me and once Light's been cleared of suspicion then all he has to do is get close enough to L so we can bag him and get him to the prison Scott free. Sure there'll be Near to deal with after that but I think that by then we should have things figured out." I sighed, relieved that things were somewhat falling into place.

"Uh huh, and what're you going to do if things start to change and go off story? Huh then what? How do you plan to deal with the unexpected Lila? You shouldn't get so confident that you know everything when everything could change. You need to prepare yourself in case you find yourself in deeper waters later on, you need to know how to swim those waters." I opened my eyes and sat up cross-legged in bed, glaring at him with an angry pout on my face.

"And you don't think I don't know things can change?" I questioned accusingly. "I know there's danger out there and it'll find me when it wants too. I also know that my presence here has already changed something in this world and that more changes are to come because I'm Kira! So don't lecture me on what I already know." I let out a huff of air as I fell back down on my back onto the bed. My knees were still up in the air and I felt tired all of a sudden. Ryuk shrugged his shoulders.

"Fine, don't take my advice," he said indignantly. "But don't come crying to me if you wind up in a pickle you can't get yourself out of. I only say this because I don't want to see you do something stupid and wind up dead because of it." He turned and floated over towards the window. I blew a strand of hair out of my face.

"Yeah and when did you start caring for the well-being of a human girl?" I questioned, now annoyed. He probably wanted more apple treats now that I'd got him completely addicted. He scoffed at me.

"What made you think something so ridiculous? I just don't want you dying before our deal is finished," he stated. Then I thought I saw something, if it was even possible, change in his eyes. "And besides…you're not like any of the other humans I've seen. You're more special in my eyes than they are." I laughed slightly.

"Yeah, because I'm the one who picked up your death note and I'm the only one who can entertain you until I die!"

"That's not what I meant!" he snapped back. I was surprised by his reaction.

"What then?" I asked not knowing what he was trying to get at. He sighed annoyed.

"Never mind," he huffed. "Just don't die too soon on me! I'm going out now, I'll be back by morning." And with that he was off, phasing through the wall and flying away from the house on his usual nightly flight. I cocked an eyebrow, thinking back on his strange behavior. I lied back down then and pulled the covers up to my chin still trying to make sense of it.

 _What's he getting at?_ I wondered annoyed. I rolled over onto my side and closed my eyes. _It's not like I'm going to die tonight so why is he making such a fuss about it?_ Despite my trying to figure it out, I finally drifted off into a deep sleep completely oblivious to what at the time should've been so obvious.

 _Light_

I shuffled around in my duffel back and finally pulled out my tennis racket. It'd been completely unexpected, this tennis match I'd been challenged to but still, I could tell from the very beginning that it was going to be more than just a simple game. I stood up and faced my opponent standing right beside me.

"I have to admit I was surprised Ryuga," I said to the man who was really L. I never thought you'd ask me to play tennis as a way to get to know each other." I gave as much of a genuine smile as I could.

"Is that a problem for you?" he asked back impassively. He was dressed in his usual get up, a baggy long sleeve white shirt and baggy blue jeans. I wondered if he ever changed. I chuckled some.

"Not at all, but when you first invited me to play, did you know how good I was?" I questioned. It was true, tennis had been the only sport I'd ever taken an interest in and I had become quite a great player. Sometimes whenever they watched, mom and Sayu would say that if the police force didn't work out for me then I could always enter the international world Olympics. True I had taken on a bit of arrogance with Ryuga for a split second but it usually happened whenever I went to play.

L as Ryuga glanced up at me as we began walking to a free court.

"Yes," he admitted. "But I'll be fine though. It's been a while but at one time I was actually the British junior champion." This intrigued me. If he was as good as he said he was then this would be challenging. However, I enjoyed a challenge. I grinned a bit in spite of myself. Then I was drawn back to what he'd said about him being British. _If I ask him if he's British, would he think I'm trying to find out more about him because he thinks I'm Kira?_ I wondered to myself. _Then again, Lila said I should raise his suspicions slightly if I want on the task force so I guess it couldn't hurt._ I turned to him slightly astonished.

"Ryuga, were you raised in the UK?" I asked. We continued walking; he remained looking ahead as he answered.

"I lived in England for about five years when I was younger," he replied. "But save your breath, nothing in that story would reveal L's true identity, I promise you." I glanced away slightly embarrassed. _Oh is that so?_ I thought to myself. _Well it's not like I wanted your backstory anyways. Besides I have Lila who could probably tell me more about you than you'd be willing to reveal yourself, not that that matters to me._ We finally arrived on our court and Ryuga took his place on the other side of the net.

"Well since it's our first match why don't we just play a single set," he suggested pulling me from my thoughts. "First one to six?" I nodded.

"That's fine by me," I said as he began to bounce the ball on his side, getting ready to serve. I readied myself taking up a stance and loosening up all tension. L kept bouncing the ball and I waited. However, nothing could've prepared me for his first powerful serve that sent the ball right past me and into the fence. A surprised look crossed my face as I straightened up. Then I smiled because I knew now that I was really going to enjoy this.

"Fifteen love," he called, something similar to a smile tugging at his lips. I sent my own smile his way.

"Woah, Ryuga," I said with surprise and excitement. "You sure don't mess around." The smile that'd I thought I'd seen playing at his lips had disappeared and he was back to his impassive self as he eyed me and said…

"He who strikes first wins!" At that my competitive spirit began to surface. However, I knew that he wasn't just playing a friendly game of tennis after he said that. I knew he'd be looking for any signs that could give Kira away. However, I wasn't Kira and even though Lila had said to raise L's suspicions I knew I would have to watch myself so as not to make him too suspicious. I was only aiming for slightly suspicious. This was definitely going to prove difficult but once again, I loved a challenge and more than anything when it came to a challenge like this, I hated to lose.

This point came to be proven as the match really got underway. The ball went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I had to hand it to L, he was a really good player and as the match picked up speed, we began to draw a crowd around the tennis courts on the other side of the cage. However, I didn't have time to pay attention to that as I was aiming to reach a goal through this tennis match that no one could understand and that was to get onto the task force.

 _Will he think I'm Kira more if I go for the win,_ I wondered as I sent the ball back to him. _If I attempt to throw the match it could either work against me or for me in terms of getting on the task force or closer to arrest. Maybe he thinks Kira hates to lose and wants to win like I do but he could also expect me to throw the match to avoid suspicion. So how do I go about this to get him only slightly suspicious but not too suspicious?_ As these thoughts ran through my mind, I could tell he too was deep in thought on the matter. Not that I could see how he could profile me by using a tennis match but Lila had warned me that he was an oddball thinker so that must've meant he had something else in mind. At the thought of Lila, it reminded me what she would face if discovered.

 _No matter what,_ I continued to think. _I can't let him win against me; I can't let him get to Lila! So I guess I've made up my mind on the matter, I'll go for the win!_ And on that thought I smacked the ball back with L unable to counter it in time and scoring me a point. I grinned slightly but let it vanish so he wouldn't notice.

As the match went on, a referee ended up refereeing with a line judge watching to see if the ball would go out of bounds. It felt more like an international competition now than a mere game. Eventually we made it to four games all and it was my turn to serve. The wheels in my head began turning as I saw what this game was turning into.

 _There's no way that this tennis match is supposed to deepen our friendship,_ I realized. _This is a token gesture, an elaborate act we'll go through so we can say we're closer. And then you're going to try and trap me by getting me to say something only Kira would know but since I'm not Kira, you'll eventually turn your sights somewhere else, possibly towards my sister!_ I struck the ball again, back towards him; we'd developed almost a rhythmic motion and now the crowd was growing heavier. The entire cage was surrounded by other students.

 _But after this if you want me to discuss Kira with you it would only make sense that I'd want to ask for proof that you are in charge of the investigation and more importantly that you're really L as you say you are. So that means it'll only make sense that I'll ask for some confirmation from a third party that you really are L which means…we'll have to go to task force headquarters._ The ball made its way back to my side and I saw my chance to end it. A tiny smirk tugged the corners of my mouth as I went for it with my racket.

 _In all things one cannot win with defense alone and if I truly wish to defend her from you then I must stop just sitting idly by as some coward afraid of getting caught! I must begin to take a stand and while I'll keep my promise of not writing in the death note…I'll still win because now I'll attack!_ I struck the ball with all my might and L, though he tried, missed it as it went under his outstretched arm as a slap shot. There was a short pause and silence then…

"Game and set," called the referee. "Won by Light Yagami, six games to four!" The crowd started cheering as I leaned over breathing heavily after having worked up a sweat. I could tell that L was tired as well. We both ended up panting, bent over and trying to catch our breath. Finally I straightened and began to do some stretches to make sure my muscles wouldn't be sore later.

Afterwards, I packed up my tennis racket and wiped my forehead with a sports towel while L as Ryuga did the same. We didn't say a word as we finished packing up. I pulled on a jacket and before we could talk again as we left the cage, the many people who'd watched the match crowded around us and began to praise us both for quite a good match. I'd been surprised that many people had actually been interested but I couldn't blame them. I guess the match looked as intense and exciting as it'd felt. As we finally got away from the crowd, the sun was beginning to set and we began walking down a lane with cherry blossom trees on either side. Finally L decided to break the silence.

"Just as I expected, you beat me," he stated just as impassive as ever. My initial excitement took over from there though I still maintained a cool head.

"It's been a while since I've had to play that hard," I admitted with a slight chuckle. Then I thought I'd better get my plan into motion. I turned to him with a sincere look of respect for the great game.

"I'm felling kind of thirsty," I said. "Plus there's something I wanted to ask you about. You want to go somewhere for a drink?" I offered and waited. He looked at me with unmoving eyes.

"You humored me with a tennis match," he stated. "The least I can do is answer some of your questions but before this conversation goes any further there's something I must tell you." I looked at him curiously now.

"What's that?" I wondered. However, before he could answer me we were interrupted.

"Light!" Lila shouted excitedly as she practically jumped onto me from behind.

"Gah! Lila what're you…stop, get off, ack…that's my throat you're hugging!" I spluttered. She immediately let go.

"Oh, sorry," she apologized as I tried to regain my breath. I glanced over at L as I straightened up again and could see that he was just as surprised as I'd been. Lila meanwhile was dancing back and forth from one foot to the other while humming so I could tell that she was excited about something though what I didn't know. Maybe she'd finally found a job since she hadn't been able to get into a secondary school. That'd been what she'd been doing today besides writing in the death note this morning and other convenient times.

"Don't worry about it," I said as I brushed myself off and readjusted my gym bag on my shoulder. L seemed to have recovered as well.

"Ah, Ms. Ranger," he greeted her, calling her attention. "I remember you from the other day. Light's younger sister right?" he asked. She blushed some as she continued to fidget.

"Adopted but yes," she replied. "And you're Hideki Ryuga right? You were leaving the entrance ceremonies the other day." He nodded. She smiled a big smile at him that was pure and genuine. I didn't know how she managed but perhaps it was because in her world she'd admitted that she'd been an anime fan girl. For a moment I wondered to myself if anyone had liked me when I'd been the villain then I shook my head deciding not to worry about other worlds at the moment.

"So Lila, what brings you here?" I asked her. She turned back to me slightly taken by surprise and then beamed.

"Well it's because I thought I'd let you know that even though I couldn't get a job today something even better happened." I cocked an eyebrow and L seemed in intrigued.

"You're looking for work?" he questioned

"Well yeah, I may have graduated high school; thank God; but my marks weren't high enough to get into a university or college or anything."

"I see," he replied. I just rolled my eyes. She turned back to me.

"Anyway after I finished my last interview and had been shut down, I was feeling depressed so I went to the milkshake bar like always and you won't believe what happened." She now had excitement dancing across her eyes and to be honest she'd caught my interest since I didn't think anything that extraordinary could happen at the milkshake bar.

"What happened?" L inquired though I imagined he wasn't as interested in the topic. Lila turned to him excitedly then back to me then she just stood between us smiling so big her eyes were shut.

"I won the trivia game and now I can have free milkshakes for a whole month!" She grinned wider and giggled some more as I just stared at her unamused.

"You nearly strangled me to death over milkshakes?" I asked skeptically. L meanwhile stared at her with an expressionless face then turned away and continued walking.

"Lucky girl," he said almost enviously. However, I couldn't exactly tell. I walked after him, trying to keep up.

"Hey Ryuga, wait up!" I called. He stopped a moment and turned. "Did you still want that drink?" I asked. He nodded.

"Yes that would be nice," he replied. Lila seemed curious.

"Drink? You mean you're going somewhere?" she wondered. L turned to face her.

"Yes, before you'd interrupted, Light had offered to take me somewhere for a drink after our tennis match."

"Oh!" she replied looking a bit stung by L's bluntness. I turned to her as well.

"Yeah, maybe we could finish talking about your win later over dinner. Meanwhile, why don't you head home and tell Sayu and mom about it, I'm sure they'd be happy to share the moment with you." I had to get her out of here so she didn't get in the way of what I was planning to do because I knew that unless I could explain it, she'd mess it up somehow. However L had other plans.

"Actually, why doesn't she come along?" he inquired of me. I looked surprised at his suggestion. "I wouldn't mind the extra company and besides, I have a feeling that I should be telling you what I'd wanted to tell you before to both of you."

"Wait what thing you wanted to tell him?" questioned Lila confused. L turned away again and began walking.

"Oh nothing really," he sighed. "Only that I suspect Light of being Kira, nothing more." He stopped up ahead some leaving me stunned that he'd said it out loud but nothing could've prepared me for what came next as he glanced over his shoulder back at Lila. "And of course…I also suspect you Ms. Ranger," he said bluntly.

I watched as Lila turned slightly pale in colour but she was too far away from L for him to notice. I felt slightly uneasy myself but I couldn't allow him to see my distress. Lila and I looked at one another, and then we spontaneously burst out into laughter, hers louder than mine. I looked back up at L, a smile on my face though it'd been nerves that's caused us both to laugh.

"You suspect us of being Kira?" I chuckled. Lila was still laughing and holding her sides.

"That's the silliest thing I've ever heard," she said between gasps for air. "I mean even if you did suspect us, what would you do? You're not a policeman Ryuga." She wiped a small bead of sweat from her brow.

"Well that's true," he admitted. "However, as I've told Light, I am the detective known as L." Lila froze at that but then continued laughing.

"L, the great detective?" she almost mocked. "Yeah right and I'm princess Cinderella!" L seemed amused by her act.

"I take it then that you don't believe me?" he asked innocently. She began to calm herself down.

"Well it does sound pretty far-fetched and besides, detectives are supposed to have magnifying glasses and those funny hats on their heads with the matching coat." I sighed while pinching the bridge of my nose and shutting my eyes to think.

"Lila you really need to pull your head out of those cartoons and TV shows because I think they're sapping you of your intelligence."

"Hey, for your information, Sherlock Holmes was a great movie," she protested. I sighed deeply again, not wanting to waste any more time. I looked up again at L.

"Alright then, let's go and get that drink. Lila you can come with us if you want to," I stated leading the way. L walked beside me and Lila who'd decided to come after all followed us close behind. I led them to one of my favourite café's in the city. We ordered our drinks while Lila eyed a giant piece of chocolate cake. Of course I'd failed to avoid her pleading eyes so sighing I paid for that as well. We wound up sitting in a booth which I reassured L we wouldn't be heard from. Meanwhile, Lila dove into her cake.

"Thanks for showing me this place," he stated. "I can see why you like it." I gave him a smile.

"Not to mention we're so out of the way here that no one's going to give you a hard time about the way you sit." At this I eyed Lila making sure she understood this. She just gave me a look that said "I already know, quit lecturing me," as she continued eating her cake and drinking her coffee. L meanwhile had brought his thumb up to his lip and held it there, a habit I assumed it being.

"I don't sit like this because I want to, I have to sit like this," L clarified. "You see, if I were to sit normally, my deductive skills would immediately be reduced by roughly forty percent. So what was it you wanted to ask me?" I went to answer but Lila beat me to it.

"So hey you guys mentioned you were playing tennis, I didn't know you could play Light, how come you never told me?" she slightly pouted playfully. I could tell she would probably end up interrupting like this for a while because she was so nervous which had been one of the reasons I'd wanted to send her home early and deal with this myself. L didn't look like he liked these interruptions any more than I did. Nevertheless I was forced to answer her. I sighed.

"I did tell you or were you not paying attention that day?" I immediately accused. True she probably already knew but it still looked like it hurt. "Anyway, yes we did play tennis today, just a friendly bout of competition." She nodded, comprehendingly with chocolate covering her face. I smiled slightly at that. She could be such a child sometimes.

"Yes precisely," L confirmed my explanation. "We did play today and Light beat me, but of course I still gave him a run for his money." I smirked at that, remembering the game. "Anyway, Lila, have you ever played tennis?" he asked. Lila immediately blushed red again and put her hands up defensively, waving them back and forth.

"Well I uh, had to play it a few times in gym when I was younger. I didn't like it as much as badminton though." L leaned forward.

"Ah I see, maybe you and I should play sometime then, just for fun?" he suggested. She blushed even more and I lightly laughed at her reaction. She always made me laugh when she was embarrassed by something so simple.

"Well, I can't say that I'm really that good," she said modestly. L cocked his head.

"Awn, really are you sure?" he asked her like one would ask a little kid. She literally was on the verge of becoming as red as a tomato. She just shook her head at his inquiry.

"No, sorry," she insisted. "But hey, if you ever need someone's who's loud…" she hinted. Immediately I could tell she was lapsing into a bad pun.

"Why would I need someone who's loud?" questioned L. He really should've known better. Lila then grinned as he'd fallen for the bait.

"Because I'm great at raising up a racket!" I sighed heavily with my eyes closed in annoyance as I raised my hand and tapped her upside the head. This and L's leading her to the punchline only made her giggle then burst into laughter, thankfully not as loud as earlier and not as long. I sighed again, taking a sip of my coffee as I needed it at that moment. Then I got right down to business.

"Anyways, Ryuga," I said, calling L's attention back to me. "What I wanted to ask was…well…now that I think about it, I'm sure that can wait until you're convinced that I'm not, nor my sister, is Kira. So honestly, I suppose we can talk about whatever you want to. Oh and you can just ignore my sister the next time she does something stupid." Lila then turned on me.

"Hey!" she whined. "No fair Light!" she punched me in the shoulder and I winced. This girl may not have been able to play tennis but she was a black belt in martial arts and a small and playful punch could still hurt. Out of the corner of my eye, L smirked slightly but his expression disappeared as quickly as it had come.

"Actually, you're under no obligation to do this but would you mind submitting yourself to a test of your deductive reasoning skills?" he asked of me. I cocked an eyebrow.

"And why would you want that?" I returned.

"Well quite honestly…I was thinking that if your deductive skills are as good as you say and you're cleared of being Kira, I'd like for you to work on this case with me and the task force. I feel like you'd be a valuable mind to have with us." I nodded, taking in what he was saying. This was it, the moment where I had to prove myself worthy enough to be let on the task force and yet kept close for L's personal surveillance. I calmly sipped my coffee.

"Alright, sure why not," I stated bringing my cup away from my lips. "Sounds like fun." Lila meanwhile, clearly knew that this was not the time to interfere, so she just sat idly by as she moved on from her now empty cake plate to her own coffee.

"Alright then we can start by taking a look at these," L said as he reached his hand into his back pocket and pulled out some photos. There were pictures of notes with un-incomprehensible text. I raised an eyebrow and wondered just what Lila had managed to do before I'd gotten involved. Lila herself was leaning over to look at them.

"Photographs of three notes written by prison inmates while under Kira's control just prior to their deaths. None of this information has been made public." I leaned forward and picked up a photo to get a closer look at it. "You can take as long as you want to look them over, please let me know what you think. Oh and Lila, since you're a part of this as well, perhaps you'd like to look at them as well?" Lila hesitated slightly before claiming another photograph to read over.

"Very interesting," I admitted, reading them over for the first time. I could already tell that there was a distinct message at the top for L and as I read it, I began to wonder how Lila had come this far without being caught already. It said, _"_ _Hey L, guess what, I love cake too!"_ I guessed she'd known L had a sweet tooth and had decided to write something unrelated to the original series. I already knew that there were print numbers on the back of them, even the one Lila was holding and going over. If I ignored that fact yet was still able to come up with the phrase she'd written as she'd intended on my first attempt, it would only make me look more suspicious. I still had to play this carefully because although solving the silly little message wasn't enough to prove either of us was Kira, it could still mean trouble if we weren't cautious.

"Secret messaging!" Lila said suddenly. I glanced at her surprised wondering if she was truly planning on getting caught. L tilted his head curiously as he said…

"Oh and what makes you say that Lila?" he questioned. She blushed slightly again but then wore a more serious face than before. She leaned back, holding her chin in a thinking posture.

"Ok, I know this going to sound corny as I'm about to reference detective movies and books," she started. "But if you think about it, even then the directors and authors had to know that this was possible to happen in real life. It's simple really, why go through the trouble of writing a letter like this in gibberish if not to send someone a message. In this case, I can only think Kira wanted to get back at L for making that Lind L. Tailor broadcast which I have to admit was a pretty cool and bold move on L's part in the first place." L held her in an un-emotional stare.

"I suppose then that that means you still don't believe I'm who I say I am?" he questioned. Lila grinned.

"Look buddy, unless you have a badge or something official, then I'm not obligated to believe anything."

"Fair enough," he replied. Then he turned back to me. "What about you Light, what do you think?" I leaned forward again after taking another look and placed the photos back on the table.

"I actually have to agree with Lila on this one," I said surprising myself. "I mean it would be quite amazing to learn that not only can Kira kill others but could also control his victim's actions. I think Kira wrote these and he's encoded a message for you as well, almost as if he's mocking you or something." I leaned over the photos, completely focused now and confident in what I was about to do.

"If you line these notes up side by side," I continued, taking the one Lila had been holding from her hand. She pouted at me; I ignored her. "Then take a look at the first letter of every line, it definitely reveals a message. Rearrange them like so and it says, "Hey L, guess what, I love cake too", which in my opinion suggests that you two could've been rivals previously." I stated. I sat back again and waited for him to respond. Lila meanwhile looked at me with well-played astonishment.

"Wow Light, you could actually figure it out? I was just taking a guess," she stated. I scoffed at her remark although I knew it was an act.

"Heh, of course I figured it out, you only said there was a message because all you pay attention to is fantasy and fiction." She pouted.

"Not true!" she complained.

"Is too and you know it," I retorted calmly. She turned from me slightly peeved.

"Fine, if that's your opinion then I want another piece of cake to wallow away my newfound sorrows!" despite it being an act, I knew she was serious and I was in no mood to fight with her right now. So I flagged over a waitress who was more than happy to get her another piece. Once the waitress was gone, Lila started on her second piece of giant chocolate cake, going at it like a chocolate carnivore. I then continued on with my analysis of the photos.

"There are also obvious print numbers on the back of each photo so if you arrange them like this," I said rearranging the photos according to the dates on the back. "You get, "Hey L, I love cake, guess what?" I suppose you could read it either way but I guess it would depend on what kind of person Kira is."

"Hm, I suppose…" L said then paused. "However, that's incorrect because in actuality there are four notes." He pulled another photograph from his back pocket and placed it over the others, aligning them in the proper way. "There now it says, "Hey L, guess what? I love cake too but red velvet is the difference between us."

I eyed the photo questioningly. _Could it be a fake?_ I wondered. _If not, what was Lila's intention behind it? It doesn't seem like something Lila would write or even be capable to come up with seeing as she doesn't support herself in taking lives. However, if it is a fake then is he stupid or what?_

"But seeing as we only had three photos to start with, my deduction was perfect," I protested whilst furrowing my brow. L just shook his head.

"No it wasn't," he sighed, "the truth is…there were four of them, if you had figured that out then it would've been perfect. Even though you knew the message was incomplete, you decided that there were only three notes, you never even considered that there might be a forth. What do you make of that?" he stared straight at me holding me in his gaze. I knew the point of this was to only get myself on the task force but at this rate he'd have us in no time.

 _Damn him!_ I thought angrily while not displaying it on my face. _This wasn't just about gaging my deductive reasoning skills; he wanted to see what my reaction would be. If I start falling for his tricks then I'll be playing right into his hands and that'll put Lila in danger. No, he won't have her, I swear!_ I sighed heavily as I sat back and smiled sheepishly.

"Well then, you got me there, I didn't think of that," I admitted. "In any case the likelihood that this message will lead you to Kira is not very great. Besides, maybe Kira is just being childish and naïve about this whole thing otherwise, I doubt he likes cake." L remained silent for a while longer.

"Well perhaps since Lila's a suspect and she's guzzling down cake right now…" Lila looked up an annoyed look on her face as she swallowed what she had in her mouth.

"And how would that prove anything?" she demanded. "I mean there's got to be a ton of people in the world who love cake and maybe Kira's one of em. Just because I had a second helping doesn't mean you can just accuse me like that! Besides who says you're even L or that L really loves cake?!"

"Well it's unnerving because I do love cake," he retorted.

"Oh please, that still doesn't prove you're L!" she protested back. He just rolled his eyes in annoyance and sighed as he turned his focus back on me as I drank my coffee.

"Anyway, Light…if you were me faced with someone who might be Kira…"

"That is if you really were L…" Lila cut in. I could swear she was really being a brat today and I didn't believe she was merely putting on an act anymore. L ignored her and continued on.

"If you were faced with someone who might be Kira…how might you go about establishing his innocence or guilt? You'd need to be absolutely sure." I sat back and thought for a while.

"I would probably try to get him to say something that wasn't made public in any way, something that only Kira could know…" I smirked as I paused a moment then continued. "Kind of like what you were doing just now."

"Truly amazing," L complimented. "What's incredible is that I've asked countless detectives that same question and it took most of them minutes to even come up with an answer. But you…you immediately thought of a scenario in which Kira is speaking directly to the investigator. I'm impressed. You'll make a fine detective Light." I felt somewhat proud that I was being praised by L himself.

"Heh, yeah well that's why Light got into college and not me," Lila stated suddenly patting me on the back. "He's always been the family genius even though his dad's the police chief. Meanwhile, I'm the artist."

"Oh? And what exactly is your art?" he asked. Lila's eyes lit up instantaneously.

"Oh I do it all!" she exclaimed. "I draw, I sing, I make up stories, I can even compose a few songs on Garage band and Logic Pro nine. I've made so many covers!"

"That sounds interesting and what exactly have you done covers of if I might ask?" he inquired leaning in. For some reason, this made me feel more uneasy.

Oh a lot of different artists and music really. In fact just about a week ago I finished a cover of the famous American song, _Titanium_. It's one of my favourites though I guess you could say I have a lot of favourites when it comes to music." I continued sipping the rest of my coffee nonchalantly while I listened to their conversation.

"Hm, it's actually quite interesting that you mention that song," he stated. "Actually, if you'd turn your attention to the photos once more, I can show you why." Curiously we leaned over the table to look to where he was pointing.

"Now, if you read across horizontally, the message to me says, "Hey L, guess what? I love cake too but red velvet it the difference between us". However, if you read down and across like you would a normal message, you'll see that the words and lines form song lyrics specifically from that song wouldn't you say?" We looked at it as instructed and I found that he was right, the words and letters all formed the lyrics of a song. However, I myself couldn't be sure if they were a part of that song since I'd never heard it before but Lila meanwhile had looked at it and I could tell from her now far away stare that it was true.

"Oh yeah," she said, keeping herself pulled together. "They are the lyrics of Titanium." She looked back up at L pretending to be confused. "But I don't see how that's relevant." L sat back in his chair.

"I see. Lila, I told you before that I suspected both you and Light of being Kira. Perhaps the dates these notes were recorded and the dates you yourself were making a cover could be similar. When exactly did you start on this _Titanium_ project of yours?"

"Around the time the term of school was switching over to the second, why?" L put his thumb on his lip again.

"Well, given that that was around the same time and yes I know how the system works; that Kira's crimes started being publicized and I openly confronted him using Lind L. Tailor as bait, I'd say that the fact that those lyrics are in these notes that I received not too shortly after and that you were probably recording over and over again to get your cover right causing said song to become lodged in your head; that the chances that you Lila Ranger could be Kira have gone up to three percent from one percent."

"What?" she practically shrieked, bolting to her feet and nearly deafening me. "That's not fair. That song is about as popular as the whole cake thing so how could that account for anything?" L raised a hand defensively.

"Woah, calm down, I said that the chances only rose to three percent. It's not a very big number."

"So what?" she demanded. "It's still kinda insulting to accuse someone of something as serious as being Kira and just so you know, I can't stand the thought of killing someone even if it was because they'd committed crime. Do I look like a murderer to you?!" Her voice had risen enough to draw the attention of another booth not too far away from us and it was at this point I decided to put my foot down. I reached up and grabbed her arm while remaining calm at the same time so as not to attract any more attention.

"Hey loud mouth," I growled under my own breath as I tugged down on her arm, making her sit down hard. "Do you mind, I don't think they heard you all the way in Jersey!" Lila reached back and rubbed her new sore spot pouting with an embarrassed look on her face. Now she really did look like a tomato. I looked back up at L.

"Sorry about that," I apologized. "She gets rowdy whenever she has sugar. Anyways, back to what you were saying before, I suppose that means this talk has gotten you more suspicious of me as well," I stated. L nodded.

"Yes, indeed. Both of you were under suspicion at one percent but now you've both risen to three percent, well actually, Lila's at three point five but it's still not that high. Nevertheless, it's made me much more determined to work with you on this investigation. You see I'm in a position where even if you are Kira…it would still be to my benefit to have you working alongside us. Do you know why I'd say that?" I nodded, understanding immediately what he was implying.

"If I cooperate with you, there's a chance I can help the investigation to move forward and if I'm Kira, I might reveal myself. In other words whether I'm Kira or not, you stand a gain either way. It's a very smart move on your part," I admitted. "But I think you might be getting the wrong idea," I told him. "It's true that I do have an interest in the Kira case and yes detective work is a hobby of mine…but I know that I'm not Kira and I certainly don't want to be killed by him." I looked down then remembering that night I'd gotten into a fight with my father over the matter.

"Then there's the fact that even though I tried to help before, my dad found out I was getting some files on the case from his computer and he forbade me from working on it any further. I don't know that he'd allow it. And besides, what proof have you been able to give me that you yourself aren't Kira. I mean it hardly seems fair for only one of us to be investigated wouldn't you say. At this point, neither of us can prove that we're not Kira, however if you are in fact L, I don't imagine that it would be that hard for you to prove it to me."

"That's right," Lila Jumped in. "If you're really not Kira then you'll have to prove that you're really L and that means we need a third opinion say like from Chief Yagami or some other task force member. I mean for all we know, you could be Kira trying to kidnap the son and adopted daughter of the chief of the police force and one of the ones working on the Kira case so you can hold us for ransom."

"Lila, simmer down," I said in reply. She shut up again and just for lack of anything to do, started childishly licking her once again empty cake plate for crumbs. I turned back to L. "Regardless of my sister's hyper-ness, she's correct. Unless you can have someone confirm your identity then I just can't help you." L seemed to look somewhat surprised.

"I don' remember saying you couldn't meet anyone from task force headquarters to verify my identity." I realized that was true, knowing that I'd slipped up in assuming. "I'm currently working alongside your father as well as several other senior detectives from the NPA. Now if I understand you correctly and I take you to task force headquarters, you'll help us with the investigation, am I safe in making this assumption?" I quickly calmed myself down from my previous mistake and took a deep breath.

 _Well Light, this is it. There'll be no going back. But does he really have a death wish or what? I might not be Kira but still, I can't bring myself to try and figure out what he's thinking. I guess Lila was right in saying that he was an eccentric thinker._ Suddenly, I was pulled from my thoughts by L's phone ringing. As he reached into his back pocket, my own phone went off. I rolled my eyes thinking that this coincidence couldn't have been timed better as I needed to plot my next move. However, as I reached for my phone I noticed that Lila had frozen and turned pale beside me. She was also shaking and I soon found out why.

My heart began racing as I heard the news coming to me from the other end from my erratic mother. I froze too, a terrifying fear gripping me as my eyes widened. L turned to tell me.

"Light, Lila, it's your…"

"My father…he had…a heart attack!" I said with a quavering voice, my phone slipping from my fingers.

 _Lila_

I couldn't believe what a complete idiot I'd been. Not only going on to talk about my interests in a public place in front of L but to actually have written down those lyrics in the notes because I couldn't think of anything clever to say. Then that stupid line about me liking cake too and eating some right in front of him. Damn it, was I ever waving a flag or what? I practically saying, "Hey I'm Kira so come and get me!"

Then there'd been the whole heart attack incident with Light's father. I had almost forgotten about it until I remembered seeing the episode and that had warned me before their phones had wrung with the bad news. I sighed heavily as I paced back and forth now back in my own room, Ryuk and Light with me and watching. Finally I yelled out and collapsed onto the bed. Light tried to calm me down.

"Hey c'mon Lila, calm down. So you made a few mistakes, beating yourself up over it won't do you any good, it happens." I sat bolt upright, eyes wide.

"Happens?" I practically shrieked though not too loud. "Happens? Oh no, no, no! I don't think you realize what's happened here, I messed up in front of L, L! And you don't just mess up in front of L, you do not just do something stupid like what I just did in front of L! That's the same as wearing a red bandana saying "Hello L, I'm Kira, right here!" I flopped back down again groaning and asking aloud as I'd often done before, "Why me?"

"Okay I get it!" Light shot back. "Don't think I'm not stressed out about this too. Not only are we L's prime suspects now or have you forgotten my father just had a heart attack!"

"So what?! It wasn't my fault, I didn't ask for that or this to happen I was just picked up by some stupid cat and thrown into a world I don't even belong in!" I snapped back. I was on the verge of tears then as the stress had broken through to some of the memories I didn't want to remember at the moment including the car accident. I became silent then as I began weeping. Light got up from the computer chair he'd been sitting in and made his way over to where I was on the bed, now curled up in a ball.

He sat down then lifted me up into a comforting hug and held me like this for a while, stroking my head at the same time.

"You know," he started softly this time. "Not once did I believe you'd attacked my father. I could tell right away when you'd become scared in the café and again in the hospital. So don't think for a moment I blame you for what happened." I nodded unable to speak. We stayed that way for a while until I was finally able to form words.

"I…I sometimes wish that this wasn't happening, that's I'd never made friends with those girls…cuz at least then I'd still be alive in my world and I wouldn't have to worry about how my family's doing, how my mom and dad took my death or even my younger siblings. It would've torn out little Katie's heart, I can only imagine her bawling…" I choked then.

"Hey, now stop that," Light ordered. "Don't go making yourself feel worse than you already do. I know it must be hard but how many times do I have to say that I'm here for you. You call yourself an outsider but I'm sorry, I just can't think of you like that. You're my little sister and I've vowed to protect you alright? We'll get through this together." I nodded again as the new tears I'd created for myself earlier continued flowing. It was at this point that I felt physically exhausted and mentally drained.

"You know he's right," Ryuk said from a part of the room from where I couldn't comprehend. "I personally think it's stupid that you're wasting your tears and strength like this. You need to not worry so much. Like what that guy said before, he only suspects you two a three and three point five percent. Just don't make any more dumb mistakes and keep pushing forward and you'll meet our quota in no time." I laughed slightly at Ryuk's comment while Light said…

"Hey, don't be so insensitive!"

"Thank you Ryuk," I said softly. I wasn't sure if he could hear it or not as I couldn't quite hear my own voice at this point and I knew that I was on the verge of sleep. I'm not quite sure what happened next as I drifted off but all I did know that during the whole time, I could sense that neither Ryuk nor Light had left my side. Personally, I wasn't quite sure why Ryuk would bother to still remain but then again, I couldn't deny that I was glad he was still there. And then, I'd fallen into a deep and dreamless sleep.

The next day I spent it again looking to find myself a possible job while writing in the death note at certain intervals when it wouldn't been suspicious. It still pained me to do so as I knew full well what I'd been doing from the very beginning and still did, understanding the magnitude of the task. I sighed knowing that I was going to need a stress relieving milkshake when this was all over. By the time the sun was setting, I was back in my room staring up at the ceiling from my bed.

"So, you're done for the day hm?" Ryuk inquired of me. I hadn't forgotten him so I tossed him an apple I'd swiped from the kitchen. He munched on it quietly. Then all of a sudden, Light came into my room, banging the door open. I sat up in bed as he crossed the room after closing the door to the TV. He turned it on.

"Hey, what if I'd been changing?" I pointed out feeling annoyed that'd he'd just barged in.

"Just pipe down and tell me where your remote is," he said sternly as he looked around. My desk was pretty messy and unlike his room, all neat and tidy, mine was well…not neat and tidy but not a complete mess either. I sighed.

"Here," I said, tossing it to him from where it'd been on my bed's backboard. He caught it and immediately turned the channel from the cartoon network I'd been watching straight to Sakura TV.

"I thought you'd want to take a look at this," he said as he sat down in the computer chair. The broadcast started.

"In other words, all of the reporters here are Kira's hostages. Aside from that we have a professional obligation to share this message with you. I assure you that this is not a hoax and that Sakura TV is not airing this tape for the purposes of sensationalism," said a male reporter behind a long desk, two other reporters on either side of him. My attention had been caught by the mention of Kira's name and suddenly, a sense of dread washed over me as I quickly recalled this part of the series.

"Four days ago, our program director here at Sakura TV received four tapes," he continued explaining. "After a thorough examination there can be no doubt that they are from Kira himself. The first tape we received contained a prediction regarding the time of death of two suspected criminals who'd recently been arrested and as predicted as the exact time as Kira had specified, both men had died suddenly of heart attacks yesterday." My heart pounded in my chest. I shook slightly as realization hit me.

"Kira had instructed us to air the second tape today at exactly five fifty nine P.M. and we do intend to comply with his demands. This tape should offer proof of his powers by predicting yet another death. Beyond that we understand that it contains a message to all the people of the world from Kira. And now the video." At this interval, a logo spelling out the name Kira appeared on screen and after the sound of the flipping of a page, a modified voice spoke through.

"I am Kira," it said. "If this video was being aired on April eighteenth at exactly five fifty nine P.M. as I requested then the time is now five fifty nine, forty seven, forty eight, forty nine; please change the channel to Tao TV. The news anchor Mr. Kuzuguri Kimo will die of a heart attack at exactly six o' clock." Immediately Light changed the cannel and my hands came up to mouth as I gasped aloud upon seeing the figure of a dead man sitting in his chair, head flopped over the back. Tears came to my eyes as I fervently shook my head and Light changed it back to Sakura TV. However, I couldn't hear the message clearly as I was fighting to contain myself. I understood though as Light changed the channel to another channel where yet another innocent man had been killed.

"Now that you have seen proof of my powers, you should have no trouble believing that I am Kira," said the modified voice again from the television. "People of the world, please listen to me. The last thing I want to do is kill the innocent. I hate evil and love justice, I've always thought of the police as allies not enemies…" I tried my best to tune it out coming across another horrifying realization that another innocent man was on his way to his death. I stood abruptly and shoved on some socks. Light noticed.

"Where are you going? We need to figure out what this is," he said with some fear in his voice.

"No need," I replied as I raced out the door of my room and down the stairs, causing Light to turn off the TV and follow me. "I already know what this is and I'll tell you all about it." I'd reached the front door. Mrs. Yagami came in from out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a dish towel.

Where are you two off to in such a hurry?" she asked.

"Just to the milkshake bar," I said instinctively. Mrs. Yagami seemed confused by this.

"This late?" she questioned. "Didn't you already go this afternoon?" Light jumped in then to help me out as I was now a girl on a mission and too focused to respond.

"Yes but that's the problem, she left her art book behind and there are a couple of bills she keeps in it. We're going back to look for it and I'm going to help." Mrs. Yagami then nodded with understanding.

"I see, well then…you two be careful alright," she said. I nodded curtly as I finished pulling on my jacket and stepped out the door. Light, who'd also gotten ready alongside me wound up trying to keep up with me as I raced down the street at a quick run.

"Lila, wait up," he called but there was not waiting. "Where are you we going anyway, now that you've dragged me out with you?" I kept running, him trying to keep up pace despite his longer legs. Meanwhile Ryuk flew after us intrigued no doubt by my sudden call to action.

"With any luck," I said seriously, "To save someone's life!"


	7. Chapter 5 (Enter: The Second Kira!)

**AN/ Hello Faithful readers. It's been a long time hasn't it so just to ease your tension, no Kira had not found and eliminated me I just hit a little roadblock along the way known as writer's block. So I'd like to thank Falkyn's Flight for getting me out of my little rut and for giving me a great idea that will be swinging this story in a new direction starting in chapter 6, Misa's Great Idea coming soon. But first and foremost, here's chapter 5. Enjoy! **

**_Chapter 5_**

 ** _(Enter: Second Kira!)_**

I ran as fast as I could with Light keeping up with me close by. Ryuk flew overhead of us, gliding with ease and not for the first time in a while did I wish that I could have wings so I could just fly wherever I needed to go. It was a good thing that the Sakura TV station wasn't too far away. All we had to do was book it and we'd be there, hopefully in time.

"Lila, wait!" Light called out from behind me. "What's going on?" I felt bad as I had no real time to talk and tell him what was going on. It was all I could do to keep up a steady breathing rate for myself as I ran down the streets of Japan towards the Sakura TV station.

We got closer and closer and I could already hear police sirens in the distance and my panic rose with every step I took. I felt like my lungs were on fire when I finally rounded the corner, Light still on my tail and thankfully, I saw that Ukita, the man who was going to die trying to stop the broadcast, almost in sight of the buildings that could give a view of the entrance. He was in his police car and going too fast as he whizzed right by us and I caught a glimpse of his determined face. I saw my only chance up ahead, just before the Sakura TV station; a crosswalk. I turned to Ryuk.

"Hey do you mind a little extra weight?" I asked desperately. Ryuk turned to me.

"Eh, what are you planning Lila?" he questioned back. I kept running, pointing at the crosswalk up ahead.

"Get me up there now!" I shouted. Ryuk surprisingly didn't hesitate or even complain as he lifted me up and then sped back ahead of the vehicle to the crosswalk.

"Hey!" Light called after us but I just flagged for him to hide. I didn't see if he was actually paying attention or listening but I had bigger things to worry about. Ryuk made it to the crosswalk just in time and as soon as my feet hit the ground, I did the stupidest thing I've ever done and the one thing my mother had told me never to do as a kid. I ran right out into the middle of the street on the crosswalk and from there, it had the desired effect. I made sure to position myself so the vehicle wouldn't be able to swerve around me.

I glimpsed the shocked look upon Ukita's face and I felt my own heart racing ahead of me as I realized I was yet again in another life or death situation involving a car. Memories of that night came flooding back and I literally became frozen with new found fear and I watched as Ukita went to swerve around me but lost control of the car. Realization that he might still die because of my recklessness hit me and I snapped out of my stupor. Then using a technique Ajisai had taught me not too long ago, I sent some of my Aura through the outer part of the car and let it surround Ukita's body for better protection. I didn't know how strong it would be but I still hoped he wouldn't die as the car crashed into the side of a building then kept going into a big tree that sat on a divider. I heard the airbags deploy.

To any normal passerby, I looked like I was scrunched up trying to make myself smaller than I actually was to avoid the car. Meanwhile, Ryuk and Light had both watched the scene in absolute horror as the two of us almost died. I allowed my breathing to return somewhat to normal then I tried walking towards the car but I fell forwards as my legs had turned to jelly. I tried again, this time taking one precautionary step at a time while I shook uncontrollably. All the while I kept thinking to myself what an absolute idiot I was.

I made my way to the side of the car just as Light made it there as well. I looked inside and saw that my aura shield though weak had somewhat worked. Ukita looked injured but other than that I knew that he was alive, especially when I took his pulse through the shattered window. I sighed some with relief. I looked up at Light and smiled weakly and sheepishly. He didn't quite know how to respond. However, he didn't need to as we heard a familiar voice behind us.

"Throwing yourself headfirst into danger yet again to save a life," it said. "That's just so like you isn't it?" I whirled around to see that Ajisai was hobbling over to us from across the way. Light looked just as surprised as I did.

"Aunt Ajisai," he exclaimed. "What're you doing here?" Ajisai came to stand beside us and humphed.

"Well I could ask you two the same question but on more important matters, I'm here because I caught wind of the broadcast and could tell right away that it wasn't Lila's doing. So I came to check it out and possibly stop it before it got out of control. That's when I saw you run out in front of this man's car missy, so do you mind explaining what that was all about?" I looked down somewhat ashamed as thought I'd been caught with my hand in the cookie jar again.

"Well…I…" I started. "I didn't want him to be killed by the second Kira." The two raised an eyebrow. I started fidgeting as I normally did when stressed.

"Well, in the original series, Hirokazu Ukita, a man from the task force raced off to Sakura TV to stop the broadcast but when he tried to get in he was killed by the second Kira."

"Second Kira?" questioned Light. He sounded a bit angry. "And since when is there a second Kira Lila? Or did you just nonchalantly leave that out for my own benefit?" I was taken aback by his aggressive tone. Ajisai tried to calm him down.

"Light, calm yourself. You know Lila wouldn't keep secrets from you now that you know everything?" Light whirled around, turning on her."

"Why don't you just shut-up you old hag!" he shouted. "You only just started butting into our lives because you used to have death note too! We didn't ask for your help!"

"On quite the contrary, Lila did ask for my help long before you offered yours. The girl's destiny is much more complicated than what you've been led to believe and I'm the only one who can help prepare her for that. Don't you see she's trying to protect you as well?"

"What protect me from me?" he snapped mockingly. "Oh give me a break! That would all be fine and dandy if I were Kira but I'm not so she shouldn't be protecting me. However, I have to constantly protect her from herself because she's an incompetent idiot! She couldn't even have graduated high school without my help and now she's running around in the streets and doing stupid things that'll get herself killed! Don't you see…I'm the one who has to protect her?!"

As their argument progressed, I felt myself beginning to shake again while meanwhile, Ryuk watched on in amusement as the two bickered with one another. It scared me as I'd never seen Light get so worked up and angry except for when he was Kira before and it was more psychotic but this time, I could see he was trembling with rage and I realized, _I…I scared him._

"Light," I sniffled as a lump caught in my throat and tears formed on the rims of my eyes. He turned to look at me still angry.

"What?" he snapped. "I hope you're not going to start trying to protect her from me. I'm angry for a reason ya know, you…" he stopped suddenly when he saw my tears. I sank to my knees and covered my eyes with my arm.

"I'm…I'm sorry!" I began sobbing. "I'm sorry I scared you like that it's just I didn't know what else to do. It's because there's another Kira out there and I almost forgot about her. I knew she was going to kill Ukita because she made the eye deal and was looking through binoculars and I didn't know how else to stop him from being seen." My entire body shook from the stress. Not only had I scared Light and Ajisai, I'd also scared myself and I'd almost died a second time by car. He was right about one thing, I was an idiot.

Suddenly though, before I knew it, I was embraced in a big hug and when I looked up I saw that it was Light. His own tears were falling now and he shuddered.

"Damn right you scared me," he said shakily. "I thought I was going to lose you Lila and we've been through too much already for this to be the end so soon." I nodded, staining his shirt with my own tears. I hiccupped some then he pulled back and smiled down at me. "So I hope you'll forgive me if I scare you next," he said. I didn't register what was happening entirely as he then shoved me to the ground then turned tail to run towards the Sakura TV station building, pulling up his hood along the way and covering his face completely.

"Light!" I called after him but he was now too far to hear me. Ajisai came up beside me and rested a hand on my shoulder as the sirens in the distance grew louder. I looked up at her with a tear stained face.

"Don't worry Lila," she consoled. "All we should be worried about now is this here young man in the car and good job using your aura as a shield. Now let's get him out of there quickly shall we?" I nodded slowly drawing up my own hood. Then we went to work on the car door and getting Ukita out and to safety.

* * *

 _Light_

I ran as fast as I could from the scene of the incident to the front of the TV station. I had been careful to draw up my hood and cover my complete face. My heart pounded in my chest as I came to the front doors. I tried to open them but they were locked tight no doubt to stop the broadcast from being interrupted. I caught a glimpse of a guard inside and thought of a quick excuse for him to let me in.

"Hey, I need to see your boss! I have another tape from Kira!" I shouted through the glass. The guard who'd heard me hesitated somewhat then approached the front doors.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" he asked sternly. Thinking quick I reached into my pocket and pulled out a bag which my mother had handed to me on the way out of the house.

 _"_ _Stop by the hospital and give this to your father for me will you?"_ she'd asked of me. I hadn't even had time to see what was inside of it as Lila had already taken off down the street by that point. As I'd run with it folded up in my pocket, I assumed it was a book of some kind for my father to read in case he got bored. Whatever it was, it was the size of a tape and its true form was obscured by the little bag.

"Here's your proof!" I stated holding it up in plain sight. Just the shape was visible inside. "Now let me in. Kira told me if this wasn't aired, he wouldn't only kill me but those who defied him at the station as well. He already knows all of your names!" The guard flinched at the idea and held up his hands defensively.

"Okay, okay, I'll let you in but you have to wait for me to talk to my superiors," he stated as he fumbled around for his keys. He opened the doors and let me in then he re locked them behind me. He then led me to the front counter. Before we got there, I swiped his taser gun off of his belt when he wasn't looking and in one swift movement I jumped up beside him and shoved him into the hallway leading to the bathrooms. He didn't even have time to try and stop me as I tased him on the neck and knocked him out. Afterwards I dragged him to the open custodian closet and then shut it behind him as I stuffed him inside. I high tailed it out of there as I heard the custodian whistling and coming my way from the men's room.

I took a quick stop in the lobby to read the map carefully then found the room where I had to go and with that I took off, running up the stairs rather than waiting for the elevator. However, it seemed my little break in hadn't gone completely unnoticed.

I heard doors opening above me and as I looked up I saw more guards were coming down along with some other people who were working in the building to apprehend me. _Damn it!_ I cursed internally.

"Hey you, stop!" someone shouted. I quickly ducked through a door leading onto the third floor I was on and began running through the building, a horde of guards and other workers hot on my trail. I drew the attention of more people as I raced about. Finally it came to the point where I couldn't just be on the defensive anymore and so when I was blocked from the second staircase by three guards, I immediately on instinct and remembering some of Lila's fighting techniques I'd seen, dodged their attempts to capture me, tasering them in the process.

I quickly burst through onto the staircase, more guards on my tail and made it up onto the proper floor. I ran down a few more hallways, the map I'd seen earlier clear in my mind. I had to stop the broadcast and I had to do it now. Lila hadn't jumped in front of that police cruiser for nothing. All I knew was that when this was over, I'd be in big trouble not only with my parents but with L and the task force too. But nevertheless, I had a mission to complete.

"Get him, don't let him reach the studio!" yelled another guard behind me. I looked up ahead seeing a water dispenser in the hallway. I grinned, turning and catching them by surprise then with all of my strength, I shoved it into the oncoming guards causing them to trip over themselves. I couldn't help but laugh some as it'd actually worked to slow them down some and I continued on until I came to the room I was looking for. I burst into the room causing everyone to turn eyes on me.

"Alright stop where you are!" I commanded sternly. "Stop this broadcast now!" The studio people seemed taken aback at first then they started laughing.

"Nice try kid but we value our lives to much for that. How'd you get in here anyway?" asked the fat man with a mustache in front of me. I grit my teeth.

"Never mind that…stop this broadcast now or innocent people are gonna die!" Maybe that would get through to them. The fat man – or the manager I assumed him to be – laughed again. Then he held me in his unwavering gaze.

"And is that supposed to be a threat kid? Are you planning to kill all of us?" I flinched at the accusation but held my ground.

"What….no I…Ugh!" Something hit me on the back from behind and I realized I had let down my guard. My head started spinning and I fell forwards but was caught by the guard responsible.

"Alright, you're coming with me," he stated. I struggled to break free but the man was too strong and twice my size.

"No, don't you see…" I yelled desperately. "If you don't stop the broadcast now he'll kill innocent people who don't deserve to die!" The manager just laughed.

"Not likely kid, weren't you listening? He'll only kill innocent people like cops if they go against his new world vision."

"Sir," the guard holding me started. "We're sorry for letting him come this far. He snuck his way in and managed to get a hold of one of our tasers." The manager waved him off.

"It's okay, in fact why not let him stay and watch the show. Maybe then he'll understand what Kira's all about. Cuff him in that chair there," he stated pointing at a free chair in the corner. The guard behind me nodded. "Oh and cover his mouth with something too. It wouldn't be much of a show if he talked through all of it."

"I was forced into a chair and handcuffed with my hands behind me. They even took the time to cuff my legs to the chair legs and then proceeded to tie something over my mouth. I tried to talk through it but was silenced when the guard tied it really tight. They'd also pulled back my hood so they could see my identity and I felt somewhat exposed for a moment. My eyes burned with anger at their idiocy. I was forced to watch and listen to the second Kira's broadcast for the next fifteen minutes.

Suddenly the door was burst open again and this time, I was surprised at who I saw. He didn't see me right away, all he did was start his commands.

"This is the police!" he shouted in his most authoritative tone. "Stop this broadcast immediately!" He entered the room and walked straight towards the men manning the console. The manager turned with a huff.

"Again, no one had any respect for good television anymore! Who are you?" he demanded.

"Hand those tapes over to me do you understand?" ordered the man. I remained stunned and gawking.

"Hold on officer," the manager said in defense. "It's not that simple. My hands are tied here, if we stop this broadcast, he'll kill all of us!"

"Shut-up!" he roared, pulling out his gun. "You're gonna be killed right here and now if you don't give those tapes to me!" I was somewhat frightened by this new side of the man I called my father. I had never seen him this serious before.

"What?" questioned the panicked manager. "Come on what the hell do you think you're doing? This is crazy!" he shook some. I was so shocked that I couldn't stop myself from calling out.

"Dad!" I tried to say through my mouth guard. I watched as he turned and noticed me for the first time. Shock registered upon the old man's features.

"Light!" he replied. "What are you doing here!?" Before he could react, the manager had slapped his gun out of his and it skidded into a far corner. The manager then wore a smug grin on his face.

"Hah, not so tough without your weapon now are ya chief?" My father's nose flared and I could tell that he was not happy. Another guy came up from behind him and quickly bound his hands behind his back.

"Let go of me!" he barked. He struggled to break free. The manger scoffed.

"I don't think so. You, tie him up with his kid over there. We're finishing with this broadcast." I became angry then at the prospect that my father was about to be tied up, about the second Kira having her way and about this manager putting everybody's life at risk. I looked around feverishly trying to find an escape route when my eyes fell upon the taser gun I'd dropped before. I then used my body strength to throw myself at the guard near me and head butt him in the gut. He collapsed immediately and I fell over close enough to the taser gun.

I loosened the cloth over my mouth quickly then took the weapon up in my mouth. Then I used all of my body strength to lift myself up and throw the taser gun towards my father.

"Dad, catch!" I called. My father noticed the taser gun coming towards him and immediately found the strength to knock the man on him off with a kick to the solar plexus. I landed back on the ground with a thud then watched as my father caught the taser gun and turned it up to full velocity.

"This is only happening because you decided to make Kira a celebrity! You're getting what you deserve!" and with that he tased the surrounding guards and retrieved his gun. Then he came over to me and helped me up, un-cuffing me with the keys he'd swiped.

"Light, what the hell are you doing here, it's not safe!" my father chastised.

"Me?" I shouted incredulously. "You're supposed to be in the hospital so what are you doing here?" the worry was clear in my voice. Not only had Lila done something completely stupid but so had my father by coming here in his condition. He placed a hand on my shoulder as he saw the fear rising in my eyes.

"Don't worry about me. I had to come here because I saw what happened to Ukita on the news and knew that Kira needed to be stopped," he explained. "Like it or not Light, I'm still in charge of this investigation." I hung my head knowing he was right. "Speaking of which," he said drawing my attention back to him as he stood once more, with his gun raised.

"Now, are you going to give me those tapes or are you going to share the same fate as them?" he questioned nodding towards the stunned guards. The manager who'd been too shocked to run remained standing before us shaking and pale as a ghost. "Well…" my father pressed. The manager put his hands up defensively.

"Alright, alright, you win! Just hold on a minute." The fat man shakily walked over to the bag of tapes and brought them back over to us and my father took them and lowered his weapon. I kept my eyes on the manager just in case he tried something. Then he turned to me with a seriously stern look on his face.

"We will be talking about this," he stated. I nodded, knowing there was no way around it. Immediately he pulled out his phone and dialed a number. As soon as the phone picked up he nearly shouted into the receiver.

"I need to speak with Ryuzaki!" he said sternly. There were murmurs I heard from the other end of the phone and I assumed he'd gotten through when I heard him continue.

"That's right," he confirmed the other speaker's words. "I couldn't just sit and watch. I've confiscated all of the tapes and am bringing them to you." He waited and I listened.

"I'm feeling just fine," continued my dad. "To be honest with you I don't think I've ever felt more alive. So what do you want me to do now? I'd say going out the front would be too dangerous and I don't know why but my son was here trying to stop the broadcast too and I don't want to put his life in jeopardy." There was more silence.

"You want us to go out the front entrance?" he suddenly asked with shock. I too was surprised with the news and my eyes widened.

"Dad," I started. "Before I came in here, Lila and I were walking outside and she almost got hit by a police car when she ran into the streets. I'm only here because the man who was driving mumbled something about stopping the broadcast before he passed out after having a terrible crash. Lila might still be out there waiting for me." My father's eyes widened. He went back to his current conversation.

"Did you hear that Ryuzaki?" he asked into the phone. There was murmuring on the other end that I couldn't quite comprehend. My father nodded. "Yes, I understand. Alright, I'll trust you with it then." Then he hung up and turned to me.

"Lila will be alright. She's technically not that close to the building and Ukita has been sent immediately to the hospital. All we have to do is trust Ryuzaki and he'll get us out of here." I nodded and followed him as he began to walk towards the front entrance.

"I assume he has something planned then?" I queried as we went. He nodded again.

"More than likely; yes. Oh and Light," he turned to me. "He also wants to talk to you again as soon as possible concerning your involvement in this here incident. Lila too since she was close by." I nodded.

"I understand. And I'm glad the others will be alright." With that we stopped talking and walked towards the front entrance, quickening our pace a bit. We finally arrived and I could see that the front doors were smashed in and a police van was resting inside the building, its lights still flashing. I turned to my dad and raised an eyebrow.

"And I thought I was being excessive."

"Desperate times called for desperate measures," he retorted. Then our eyes fell upon the scene behind the van and we were stunned beyond belief. An entire blockade had been set up just for us, a black screen covering the entrance. Behind this black screen was a car that looked awfully similar to dad's own police cruiser with tinted windows and someone was standing there holding the door open for us.

"Make sure there are no gaps," said a male voice over a megaphone. "Do not reveal your faces. We know that Kira is not in the building. He is outside." I stood there awestruck until my father placed a hand on my shoulder calling me back to reality. I turned to him and we both nodded as we made our way to the car. My father placed his hand on the man's shoulder, the one holding the door open for us.

"Thank you, I'll drive myself," he stated. The man nodded.

"I understand," he replied. I turned to my father slightly panic stricken.

"But dad, you just got out of the hospital and you weren't even discharged. Maybe I should…"

"No," he stopped me. "Light, you wouldn't even know where you were going. It's fine; I'm alright so you don't need to worry about me. I'll drive and you can sit in the back."

"The back!?" I exclaimed. "But dad I…"

"Now Light!" he suddenly barked. "It's safer that way. I don't want you getting hurt." I sighed deciding it was best not to get him so worked up and then just casually slid into the back seat. My father then slid into the driver's seat and started the car. I watched the black screen cover as it passed by us as we drove away.

"Listen up! there is a very good chance that Kira is still in the vicinity of the station. As you move out, proceed with caution," I heard the drone of the policeman who'd spoken over the PA system before as we went. It got fainter and fainter. Soon there was just the hum of the vehicle's engine up front and as we went, I couldn't help but be lulled into a shallow sleep as we drove. I'd been through a lot in the past few hours and the amount of stress pressed on my nerves by Lila, the TV station workers and my own father discharging himself early was about all a young adult like me just starting fresh in university could take.

* * *

 _Lila_

As soon as Light had taken off and gotten himself into the Sakura TV building, I'd been on edge. It didn't matter how many times Ajisai or even surprisingly Ryuk tried to calm my jumbled nerves; I was not able to calm myself down. Not only had I accidentally forced myself to relive the terror of my first car accident, I'd almost gotten myself into another and I'd hurt Light by putting my life and Ukita's in danger.

After he'd disappeared inside the building, Ajisai wasted no time in getting an ambulance for Ukita after which of course, she'd tended to his more serious wounds herself with her healing aura abilities. I still felt guilty for having almost cost Ukita his life despite my trying to save it. Then another police cruiser had shown up and two policemen had stepped out. I'd tried to shout out my warning but It'd been too late as the two men had collapsed dead from heart attacks almost immediately. I'd totally lost it then, crying myself silly.

Then I'd been nearly scared out of my wits as Mr. Yagami had arrived with the police van just as he had in the original series to stop the broadcast and retrieve the tapes from the manager. Immediately, after having calmed down a bit, I wondered just how the pair of father and son would interact in this situation. Then as the police blockade had arrived, I'd watched as they'd set up formation and then Ajisai and I'd been approached, the people from the hospital also having arrived at that moment for Ukita, by both Aizawa and Mogi. They'd shuffled us both into the vehicle, Ajisai, explaining she was a visiting relative who'd been on her way over to our house for a visit when she'd witnessed the accident.

Now we both sat in the task force headquarters, having been blindfolded the entire trip and we sat upon the same couch, me being more nervous than I'd ever been in my life as I watched Ryuzaki aka L sit before his computer and TV monitors. I was sweating profusely, still trying to get over my most recent causes for near hysteria. Suddenly the door opened and in came Mr. Yagami being supported by Watari followed by Light who was rubbing his eyes as though he'd been asleep.

Immediately I stood and rushed to him, embracing him in a hug that caught him by surprise. I wept somewhat, hiccupping some in the process.

"You idiot!" I shuddered. "Isn't it enough that Kira's killing with heart attacks and here you almost gave me one making me worry so much. I mean you could've…" I felt a flick to the forehead and looked up into his stern gaze. He smirked then scoffed at me.

"What and it's fair for you to be an idiot yourself, running out into the street like that with no regard for your own safety? You almost got that guy and yourself killed!" I flinched as the reminder hit me and as it did, new waves of hysteria came about. I dove into his shirt face first and started blubbering silently like a baby. Ajisai came forth to pry me from his shoulder and she led me back to our original seat. Mr. Yagami turned his gaze upon her.

"Ajisai, I didn't think you'd be in the city," he said with slight surprise in his voice. Ajisai just huffed.

"And is it wrong to come all this way to pay my family a surprise visit?" she retorted. Just as Mr. Yagami was about to respond, L interrupted him by clearing his throat.

"Ahem! It's great to have you back, chief Yagami. And it's nice to see old faces again as well," he commented, shifting his gaze between Mr. Yagami, Light and myself. Mr. Yagami straightened up some.

"Ryuzaki," he said. He held a stern gaze. "I apologize for taking matters into my own hands. I have to admit, I got a little bit carried away. And I honestly had no idea that Light and Lila would be out so late either and wind up in the same situation." L came forward shaking his head.

"No, it's okay and how could you have known the actions of your children?" It was at this point that Light stepped forward slightly embarrassed, clearing his throat and holding out a bag.

"Well at any rate…at least we were able to get the tapes and everything that Kira sent to the station. Here, I'm sure you could use them as evidence," he stated. L took the bag and bowed his head.

"Thank you Light; Chief; I can't thank you two enough." They both nodded. Suddenly, Mr. Yagami groaned and started teetering some. Light took notice.

"Dad!" he exclaimed. His father put up a hand before his son could get too worried.

"Don't worry about me," he said. "I think I'll just sit down and rest a while." Light nodded. I could tell he was worried for his father and I was worried too. A heart attack topped with minor time to recover in the hospital then more stress plus adrenaline didn't sound like a good mixture to me. Then my gaze drifted towards L who was looking through the contents of the bag.

"Mr. Yagami; Light, I promise this won't go to waste," he said as he looked through it all. As he pulled out the envelope he stared at the posting intently. Light meanwhile had sat down next to me and nudged me with his elbow.

"Hey, are you alright now?" he asked in a whisper. I glared at him still rather shaky.

"You're kidding right?" I retorted. He took up a defensive pose, putting his hands up in surrender making Ajisai chuckle to herself.

"Oh, young'uns today," she sighed. Before we knew it, L had made his way over to us after having dispatched Aizawa with the tapes to be analyzed, pulling up a chair and sitting across for us.

"Now before we begin, I want to note that you were pretty brave to enter into that building like the way you did Light," he started. "But I don't need to tell you how much more suspicion has been placed on you now that you've been seen close to the crime. You as well Lila," he said turning to me. I nodded solemnly.

"Yes of course, I understand," Light responded wearily. I could tell he was tired but also that he wouldn't be letting his guard down for one minute while we were here. Meanwhile Ajisai had cocked an eyebrow and gave us very stern looks.

"Suspicion?" she questioned. "Suspicion for what? What have you two been up to? Better not be breaking the law now," she stated. Her tone was crisp and to the point. She sounded like one of those scolding grandmothers rather than an aunt.

"No, no, it's nothing like that," Light pretended to reassure her, waving his hands defensively. "It's just that Kira is a mass murderer, I'm sure you've heard of him; who can kill with just a name and a face and a while back he got some data from secret police files. I'd already hacked into my father's system so it'd placed me under suspicion and Lila's under suspicion as well for other reasons. That's all there is to it." Ajisai huffed again.

"Bah, Kira this and Kira that," she grumbled. "As soon as I learned that that was the only news in the outside world that was available I plum started turning off my TV and stopped paying attention to that crap! I don't like getting my nose into matters that don't concern me and if you were wise Light, you'd do the same and stop trying to solve every case you read up on, on your father's computer! Didn't I teach you anything boy?" Light, despite knowing it was an act, still blushed profusely.

"Aunt Ajisai," he tried to reason but was stopped by a whack on the head. "Ow!"

"Don't you Aunt Ajisai me young man! You only just began your university studies not too long ago and have a promising future ahead of you. Don't throw it away chasing a madman. Let the task force handle it and just stay out of their way from now on,"

"But," Light tried again but this time it was L who interrupted.

"Well actually…Ms. Ajisai was it? I've already asked that Light be a part of the Kira investigation a while ago and although his father was against it at first, he's already been approved."

"What!" Ajisai shrieked suddenly, causing both Light and I to jump in our seats. "You dare put my nephew's life at risk huh? Does his mother know, well does she? No I bet she doesn't does she and you won't be telling her any time soon is that it? Well I won't allow it, I won't allow for the likes of you to endanger my family's lives and it's bad enough that Mr. adrenaline juggie over here ran away from the hospital!" She pointed an accusing finger at Mr. Yagami sitting on the opposite couch.

"Ajisai please," he pleaded. "There's no need to shout."

"No need to shout, no need to shout!" she practically yelled at the top of her lungs. "No I will shout damn it! I'll shout it from the roof tops that my brother in law is a selfish idiot planning on not only getting himself killed but his own children as well! Maybe then they'll tow you away to have your head examined and these two can go on with their lives! You might be willing to risk your life but don't go pulling these two into it with you. And as for you," she wheeled around, turning on L.

"You don't have the right to force these two into anything and why the hell would you even ask Light to join your investigation if you suspect him? It doesn't make that much sense to me and I'll be damned before I see either of them strung up." L just watched the spectacle that was Ajisai with curiosity. There was no doubting the way his eyes widened and the way he leaned forward with his finger on his lip that he was utterly amused. Meanwhile, Light and I had to give her credit because this was just the sort of thing that Ajisai was good at. Causing a scene and being herself. Suddenly L held up his hand causing Ajisai to turn her glare into a questioning one.

"Ms. Ajisai, please," L started then lowered his hand. "Just shut-up. You're constant yelling and ranting is going to get us thrown out of here and it's rather annoying." This seemed to add fuel to her fire.

"Oh and exactly who died and made you king? I'll do as I bloody well please and you can't do a damned thing about it!"

"Ajisai!" Light suddenly snapped. She whirled around to face him, none too happy about being addressed in such a manor by her nephew.

"Just do as he says and shut-up already. You're giving me a migraine and are working at the last bit of sanity I have left from today." Ajisai flared up.

"Light, you dare…"

"Yes I bloody well dare!" he shouted then lowered his voice causing everyone to become surprised. He sighed and began rubbing his temples. "Like it or not Ajisai, I'm an adult and I'm capable of making my own decisions regarding my own life. This man…approached me saying he was L and then told me of his suspicions of me being Kira and despite that he's asked me to join the task force and help out with the case. Now I've already agreed to this and I'm not turning back from that decision. Say what you will but you have no power over me or Lila for that matter." He then looked up at her with a deadly serious look upon his face.

"We're both young adults now and can stand on our own two feet so we don't need you or our parents to hold our hands. If you want to help us now then you'd best do it from the sidelines and stay out of our way. We're not children!" Ajisai was taken aback but at least she was silent again to everyone's great relief. L sighed and motioned for her to sit down which she did without even thinking.

"Now that we've got that out of the way," he started. "Let's get down to business you two. Now explain to me everything that happened starting with what you were doing near the Sakura TV station to begin with." Light nodded, placing a comforting hand on my own. I glanced up and he gave me a warm smile that said, "Don't worry, it'll be alright." I nodded in reply then we turned back to our interrogator.

"Well," I started shakily, figuring I should be the one who would begin. "I forgot my art book at the milkshake bar we usually go to and Light decided to come along to help me. I wanted to take the longer way because I thought it'd be more fun at night and since we were together, I didn't think we'd run into any trouble. Then we got closer to the TV station and my earing came out and was kicked by someone not paying attention to where they were walking out into the crosswalk." I gulped.

"See, they're special to me because my mother got them for me for one of my birthdays and well I wasn't paying attention to anything else, I just ran out into the middle of the street. But that was when I heard the siren and saw the car coming towards me and I just froze. Light tried calling out to me but I just couldn't move." I was shaking from the memory and a new stream of tears flowed down my face. I sniffed trying to pull myself together but couldn't as out of the blue, a memory of one of my friend's having her head decapitated entered my mind. I started shuddering.

Ajisai having decided to let us talk leaned over and pulled me into a hug as I started bawling again. It was so embarrassing, crying in front of L but I couldn't stop myself.

"Shush now. There, there child," she said soothingly. Then she looked up at L still angry from before. "Now does this child seem to be capable of killing anyone or thing to you?" she asked menacingly.

"Ajisai!" Light hissed. She just shot him a glare. She continued rubbing my back and then looked down at her feet.

"That's when I was walking by on the opposite side of the street just a little ways off," she stated solemnly. "I thought I'd heard Light's voice so I looked up and sure enough there he was yelling at Lila to get out of the crosswalk. I was still a ways away and I would've thrown her out of the way in a heartbeat but I wasn't fast enough on my bum leg to get there. That's when the car swerved and scraped against the side of the building then crashed into the tree sitting on the divider in between the two lanes.

"Then she slowly made her way off of the crosswalk not even picking up her earing as she went as quickly as she could manage after the shock to the car. She just had to see if the man was okay and Light ran after her. I eventually caught up and picked up her earing I found in the crosswalk. I got to their side as soon as I could. The poor girl was in tears by the time I got there and Light's panicked yelling didn't help either. Luckily the man driving the car wasn't that badly injured for anything to be fatal. And before I knew it, my nephew was running towards the Sakura building with his hood pulled up and somehow got in. After that the best I could do was consoled the girl and attend to the wounded man to keep him alive until the ambulance showed up."

"I see," L stated seeming to understand. "So you were able to administer some form of treatment on our man Ukita, very good. I must thank you for that. I got the report back that he made it to the hospital alright and underwent treatment immediately. He should recover quite fine." Ajisai nodded. Meanwhile, Mr. Yagami just sighed with relief as did the other task force members I hadn't been paying attention to this entire time. Then L turned to Light. "And your account," he inquired. Light nodded then leaned back with his hands placed calmly on his lap.

"Well, just like Ajisai said, I rushed to the car after Lila. She'd wanted to make sure she hadn't been the cause for anyone's untimely death and truth be told I did lose my temper because she frightened me when she just stood there in the crosswalk like that. The man driving the car, Ukita I believe you just said his name was, was still somewhat conscious but just barely. I heard him mumble something about stopping Kira's broadcast and at first I didn't know what he was referring to but I caught a glimpse of a television on in the front window of the Sakura TV station building that had the logo for Kira on it.

"I understood then that he was trying to stop the broadcast and since he was driving a police car, I assumed he was from the task force. So I acted on impulse and got myself in the building by saying I had another of Kira's so called tapes. After that I swiped a taser gun off of the guard who let me in and knocked him out. I made my way to the room not without opposition seeing as I'd drawn attention to myself and I finally made it but they caught me and tied me up. I think the manager could be a Kira supporter only based on the ratings he would get from airing the tapes but other than that he just told me to keep quiet and watch. Then a bit later my father arrived and well, based on your phone call with him earlier I suppose you would know the rest." He finished crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes for a brief moment of peace. L meanwhile took our story into account.

"Alright then, I suppose it seems legit but we will be looking into the matter to make sure it's true. Of course you understand that just your Aunt's point of view and your father's aren't going help that much." We nodded.

"Of course," Light replied. "If it were me I'd probably be suspicious of such an incredible story as well. I'd definitely try to find out if it were true." L nodded.

"Yes well, I believe that we've all had enough excitement for one day. Mr. Yagami I want you to take your son, daughter and sister in law back home for some rest. Then report here as soon as you feel better. Oh and don't worry I'll take care of matters at the hospital concerning your sudden disappearance."

"Humph, if it's all the same then I should probably go and retrieve my vehicle from that parking garage downtown. I don't want another ticket!" Ajisai said as she stood from her place. Watari stood from where he'd been seated as well.

"Very well Ms. Ajisai, allow me to take you there. I'll drive the rest of you home myself." Mr. Yagami tried to protest.

"No, no Watari, it's alright I'll be…"

"Don't even start that crap here Soichiro!" Snapped Ajisai. "You'll get a drive from Watari. He might be older than you but you just came from the hospital after having a heart attack a few days ago and yes Sachiko told me already what happened. Why else do you think I came down to the city? Don't make me get my handbag." I chuckled slightly as Mr. Yagami sighed.

"I suppose I have no choice then since you two will probably say the same thing," he said turning to us. I simply nodded my head and Light just agreed with a, "Damn right, old man!" And with that, there was no more arguing as we left the hotel room. We entered the parking garage of the hotel and got into the car. We drove in silence until we reached the parking garage down town where Ajisai had parked. It was a considerable amount of distance from the TV station so suspicion on Ajisai wouldn't be too strong if L hadn't already suspected her already.

After she'd retrieved her car we were driven back home and once inside the house, Mr. Yagami had to explain to his worried wife about the details of what had happened. She to no one's surprise immediately embraced both me and Light in a huge hug and started crying for us. This almost made me break down and cry too but Ajisai and Light decided they would help me to my room so that I wouldn't wind up more stressed than I already was. Once inside, I plopped down on my bed and Light did the same thing to my computer chair. Ajisai shut the door behind us turned around just as Ryuk had phased in through the walls. I glanced up and I wasn't sure if I was imagining it but he looked rather peeved and slightly scarier than normal so I gave a slight shudder.

"So can we all agree that Lila Ranger the infamous Kira is a complete and utter idiot?" he asked mockingly. The three of us who were human all mumbled, "yes" in unison. I buried my face into my pillow and there was a very long silence until Ajisai broke it.

"Well then…what are we going to do about this second Kira? I know it must seem cruel to talk about it now since we all just went through so much but the truth is we don't know what she'll do next. She is a she right?" she said turning to me.

"Yes," I spoke into my pillow. I focused on breathing in and out slowly so I wouldn't do my normal entrance into the hyperventilation stage. I heard Light shift in the computer chair.

"This second Kira has made the eye deal with her Shinigami so ultimately she can kill by just seeing someone's face. So how do we approach the matter without drawing attention to ourselves or scaring her into killing us?" I sat up and turned around on my bed looking straight ahead at nothing.

"Well originally, this was just a ploy to get the real Kira's, in this case, my attention. She wants to work alongside Kira because he or rather I…killed her parent's murderer who almost got away innocent of the charges he'd been laid with. She's a little desperate and needy and she'd do anything Kira says. So basically all we have to do is find a way to get a message to her to confront her and see about stopping her from taking more innocent lives." Light nodded, already thinking about what we should do.

"But who is this girl?" Ajisai asked seriously. I pulled up my right knee into a hug of sorts, resting my chin on top. I continued to look straight forward then sighed.

"Believe it or not she's a famous actor slash model. Her name….is Misa Amane."

* * *

 _Misa_

It was a beautiful day outside today and I strolled down the streets humming to myself happily. To anyone else, I appeared to be an ordinary young woman just enjoying a leisurely stroll through the city of Tokyo. However, I was far from ordinary and the reason was because of my eyes.

I could see them all, every name, every lifespan hovering above their heads. The men, the women, the children. No one's name and lifespan were invisible to me and with this ability and the black notebook I'd received not too long ago, I could take any number of lives surrounding me. However, I wasn't going to kill the innocent. No, I just needed to get **_his_** attention; Kira's attention. Then I could serve him as long as he needed me.

"Misa," a voice said behind me. It'd come from my Shinigami who called herself Rem and who'd given the death note to me as a gift. "I gave that death note to you. So why not use it for yourself?" I continued walking as she flew behind me.

"I am using it for myself because I believe in what Kira is doing. I want to know what kind of person Kira is. I want to meet him and talk to him. That's the only reason I sent all those videos to that TV station," I explained. "I have to find some way to make Kira notice me and I'd say that probably got his attention don't you think?" I became excited at the thought at finally meeting my one and only hero. In my eyes, Kira was a handsome and devilish knight in shining armor who'd be all too happy for my help. Maybe even some day we would get married and we could be God and Goddess of this new world he was trying to create.

"It's a dangerous game you're playing. There's a chance you could be killed," Rem warned from behind. "Do you understand?" I giggled.

"It's alright," I assured her. "I'm sure Kira is kind to those with pure hearts." I giggled again and then thought about it more. "And if it came down to that, I'm still stronger than he is because I have the eyes!" I nodded feeling sure of myself. Rem sighed behind me and decided to just let it go for now. I began skipping along happily. Suddenly a sharp voice shouted out to me from across the way.

"Misa!" called my manager. I groaned as I turned to face him running towards me. "Do you even realize how late you are? You should've been here an hour ago!" he yelled. I sighed and looked away.

"Well excuse me, I had to use the bathroom and then I saw something on sale and just had to buy it and…"

"I don't want to hear your excuses young lady! This way now!" He said angrily, grabbing my arm. I winced as his grip was too tight.

"Ow, hey not so hard!" I complained. I could see Rem getting steamed behind me but I gave her a quick flash of a sympathetic smile that told her I'd be okay. She nodded and just followed me as my manager ruthlessly tugged my arm nearly off towards the photoshoot I was supposed to be participating in.

I heard hands clapping as I arrived as everyone was rushed into position. I was taken straight to hair and makeup to straighten up some of my features. Then I was in no time at all in front of the camera. The photographer stood there waiting for everyone else to be out of the way of the shot. Then he eyed me suspiciously.

"Ms. Misa, you are ready aren't you?" he asked skeptically. I gave my biggest smile and struck a pose.

"Ready when you are Mr. photographer!" I giggled slightly afterwards and then with one curt nod from the director, the shooting began. I posed several different times in the most sexy poses known to man. One of the poses had me on my side and giving a sexy kiss to the camera accompanied by a wink. More clapping as people were directed to new positions and background changes.

"Alright Misa, look into the camera as though you're a tiger ready to pounce on its prey and put your leg out more to the side, yes that's it," spoke the photographer. As we went through the shoot I daydreamed wondering if Kira was already a fan of mine. It would be so wonderful if two fans of one another's works could come together and create a new world order. The thought filled me with glee and the photographer had to get my attention several times as I zoned out into space.

Finally the shoot was done and I could finally go home. The people started packing up and I took a swig from a bottle of cold water. Rem hovered over me looking at them all with disapproving eyes.

"Men are such boorish pigs!" she stated. "Misa, why do you let them take pictures of you like that? It seems rather degrading if you ask me." I sighed and wiped some sweat from my brow.

"Because it keeps the public happy and it gets me paid. Besides I enjoy being a celebrity." I giggled some to make her feel better about it. She smiled slightly…at least…it looked like a smile to me.

After that, we walked back home together as the sun faded from view and I felt rather good about myself. In just a few more days, I would have the police force's answer, yes or no and then I'd make Kira proud of me. I giggled. Once we arrived back home, I immediately made my way up to my room. I entered and plopped myself on the bed as Rem phased through the wall. I let out an exasperated sigh.

"Man, sometimes I hate photoshoots," I complained. "I mean really, I had one today and I have another in another few days. Can't I catch a break?"

"But you still have a few days to rest don't you?" Rem queried. I shot upright.

"Not if I'm going to get a reply from the police soon and then Kira!" I yelled out. Then I fell back onto my bed.

"Speaking of replies," said a gruff voice nearby. My eyes widened and I sat up in fear thinking someone else was in my room. At first there was no one but then someone or rather something phased through my wall. My eyes widened even more. It was a Shinigami. Rem quickly got in front of me.

"It's you!" she stated coldly. "Ryuk what are you doing here?" she demanded of the new comer. I peeked out from behind Rem curiously.

"Ryuk?" I questioned. "Is that your name?" The Shinigami who'd just phased through the wall turned to me with what looked like a grin on his face.

"That's right and there's no need to get so defensive Rem. I'm just here to deliver a message to miss Amane here." I became suddenly interested.

"A message?" I climbed off the bed and came to stand before the Shinigami who called himself Ryuk. "And what message would that be? Wait how'd you know my name anyway, we've never met." This sent him into a riotous fit of laughter.

"You mean to tell me you made the deal and you still don't know how it works?" he asked mockingly. I growled some as my cheeks flushed red. I'd forgotten that all Shinigami could see the names and life spans like everyone else. I crossed my arms over my chest, pouting at the same time.

"Don't laugh at me, I thought you had a message," I pouted childishly. He brought himself around from his outburst and cleared his throat.

"Oh right, the message well…Kira asked me to give you this." Upon hearing Kira's name my heart almost stopped. I reached forward as Ryuk held out a small piece of paper to me. I took it and unfolded it to see a well mapped out address and a note.

 _Dear Misa,_

 _It is I Kira. I have received your message and I know who you are but do not fear. This is not a piece of the death note and I do not wish to kill you. I also understand that you wish to meet with me and I will do so gladly. However, first I must ask that you do not send out a reply to this message in any shape or form unless it is with my Shinigami, Ryuk. Also, you should know that I am not working alone so you would also be meeting with two of my cohorts. I have given you an address to go to tomorrow at twelve o'clock noon. If you still wish to meet with me then I'll be waiting there with my cohorts for your arrival. Please do not draw attention to yourself and wear a disguise if you must. No one must follow you. Until tomorrow,_

 _Sincerely,_

 _Kira!_

My heart began hammering in my chest as I re read the letter. Kira had contacted me and he'd wasted no time in doing so. I grew giddy within and then I started jumping up and down.

"Yes, oh yes, oh yes, I'll definitely go!" I squealed excitedly. Then as I was jumping about a sudden thought came to me and I turned back to face Ryuk.

"Hold on," I said. "If you're Kira's Shinigami then how can I see you when I haven't touched his death note?"

"I've been wondering about that one myself," Rem agreed. Ryuk seemed to just shrug.

"Well after your little stunt with the police officers at Sakura TV and those broadcasts, it caused quite some havoc for us so Kira decided to contact you right away. We discovered you were going to be at a photoshoot today so Kira had me slip in and tap you with a page from the death note so that you could see me when I brought you the message. It was when you and your Shinigami weren't paying attention. Then I just followed you from a safe distance until you got home, see." I nodded understanding.

"Alright, I've got it!" I then returned to my jumping about the room some more then I realized, "Oh yeah, I should probably write back!" I quickly pulled out a different note book that wasn't the death note and ripped out a page from there. I had already formulated a plan for tomorrow and I wrote feverishly. Once I was done I handed the note back to Ryuk all folded up.

"Ok, that should do it. That's my reply. Oh I just can't wait!" I giggled again as I normally did when I got excited. Ryuk nodded and turned to leave but then turned back again.

"Oh and by the way girl," he stated. "No more killing anyone until you've been told otherwise. Those are Kira's wishes." He then phased back through the wall and was gone once more, leaving Rem and me alone. Rem immediately turned to me.

"I don't like it," she said. "This could all be a trap and you'd be walking straight into it. We don't know who this Kira is or what he's like." I giggled again, thinking she was being too serious.

"Oh come on Rem, I'll bet he's just like I pictured him. A knight in shining armor who will fall in love with me the moment we meet."

* * *

 _Lila_

"Achoo!" I sneezed then rubbed at my itchy nose somewhat annoyed. I sat in the booth of a little café that sat on the corner of a quiet – well quiet for Tokyo at least – street and was sided by two streets going in opposite directions. I tapped my foot rigorously as I watched the minutes tick by. Finally Light who was sitting beside me sighed.

"Do you have to do that?" he asked slightly annoyed. I smiled nervously.

"Heh, sorry, it's nerves," I replied. It was true, I was nervous and as a justification to that I'd already ordered and downed not only my lunch but three big slices of chocolate cake and two cappuccinos. Ajisai was sitting across from us drinking some tea she'd ordered as we all sat and waited for Misa Amane, the second Kira to arrive. I was both scared and excited for the event. The fan girl in me was screaming like a fangirl would, internally of course and the cautious side of me was sweating bullets trying to figure out how to handle the situation.

"So any ideas on how to handle this?" Light asked suddenly with nothing else to do . I was slightly thrown off by his question as I'd been in another world.

"Who…are you talking to me?" I asked nervously pointing to myself. He sighed agitated.

"Yes I'm talking to you," he retorted. "You're the one who said we should approach her as soon as possible without causing a scene. This was your idea. We're only here for support and to let her know what's going down. The rest is up to you." I began to sweat again.

"Oh, right. Heh well…I was thinking well…" I blushed some as I looked up at Light again then looked away causing him to cock an eyebrow.

"What…?" he pressed. I began to fidget with my feet under the table.

"Well um…last time she kind of…developed this huge crush on you and wouldn't leave you alone so I was thinking we could use your good looks that seem to attract every other girl to our advantage. All you'd have to do is pretend to be her boyfriend…again!" I looked back to Light who was now wearing a sort of deadpanned expression with some slight annoyance as he went to pick up his coffee again.

"We'll see," he replied annoyed. Ajisai gave a short laugh.

"Heh, what's the matter Light? Shouldn't boys your age at least try to get laid before they end up old, crippled and unattractive?" She grinned as she watched Light turn bright red and quickly avert his gaze down at his coffee. I kind of laughed at that as it would've totally been the reaction my own little brother would've given if asked the same question by my mom. What was worse for Light's case was that a waitress had been walking towards our table at that moment and had giggled as she came up right beside it.

"Oh my, I do believe I've interrupted something," she giggled some more. "But anyways, the woman you've been waiting for has arrived. Would you like me to escort her in?" I giggled some too, turning somewhat red myself. My heart still hammered in my chest as my nerves started acting up.

"Yes, that'd be just fine dear," Ajisai replied for me as I couldn't seem to find the words. The waitress nodded and left to go and escort Misa Amane to our table.

"Holy crap," I breathed out. "She's here, I…I can't believe it's really her."

"We don't know that until she sits down," grumbled a still embarrassed Light. Ajisai scoffed at us both.

"Aren't we a right sight?" she questioned mockingly. "Now pull yourselves together unless you want this girl's first impression of you to make her question your actual mental ages!" I brushed myself down and pushed my empty cappuccino cup away then crossed my arms on the table whilst placing my head on them."

"Fine!" I huffed out. "Let's just get this over with." Just as I said that the waitress returned with a young woman wearing a sort of goth like outfit with a black haired "wig" I assumed. She seemed rather nervous herself as she arrived. Ajisai looked up at the waitress and gave her a sweet smile.

"Good, thanks that'll do for now. Could you leave us in peace then?" The waitress nodded and left the black haired girl standing in front of our table.

"Well um…I'm here," she stammered out. Ajisai gave her, her brightest smile and patted the booth's seat next to her.

"Here dear, why don't you sit down? You must be exhausted seeing as you walked all the way here." The girl's eyes widened in surprise.

"How'd you know that?" she questioned.

"Heh because your sweating up a storm dearie, that's how. Now sit so we might get started. You are Misa Amane right?" The girl seemed to be caught off guard for a few seconds but then shook herself from her daze.

"Oh right, that's me and…" she turned to see Light first as he was sitting on the outside of the seat we were in. I saw that her cheeks were now blushing red and she sat down almost automatically. She stared at Light for some time who was still trying to avoid confrontation of any kind since his latest embarrassment by having closed his eyes. However, I could tell he'd felt Misa's stare boring into him and he opened his eyes to look up at her with an impassive expression.

"Yes?" he asked wondering what her deal was. _Well, it looks like it's love at first sight again,_ I thought to myself as I rolled my eyes.

"Are you…" she started but then lowered her voice as she leaned in closer to Light's personal space. "Are you really him? Are you…Kira?" she asked in an almost dead whisper. Luckily though Light and I had heard her. If he was feeling embarrassed he did a very good job at hiding it as he cleared his throat and laced his fingers together on the table.

"Well…" he began but was immediately cut off by her sudden squealing. She looked back at him.

"I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!" she practically shouted making me feel uneasy in such a public place even if we had requested the quiet sitting area.

"Knew what…and can you please keep it down?" he asked somewhat scared now. I could hear it in his voice as I had learned to read some of his emotions through that method whenever he slipped up. Now was one of those times and I felt somewhat bad for him and yet relieved that my true identity hadn't been revealed yet as I was somewhat frightened at what she'd do when she found out. She clenched her fists and went into a total giddy fangirl pose. Then she pointed right at him, her eyes seeming to sparkle like diamonds.

"I knew that you were my prince, my knight in shining armour I've been waiting for, I just knew it. It only makes sense that you'd be so darn handsome and good at what you do. I can't wait to serve you! Then maybe we might fall in love and…Oh wait, how rude of me." She suddenly stood and grabbed Light's hand and began shaking it happily. "My name's Misa Amane and if you haven't already guessed…" she leaned in to whisper. "I'm the second Kira." At this she was thrown into a fit of giggles and blushes as she continued to play the role of fangirl.

Light meanwhile had no idea on how to respond. He glanced my way for help and I realized that that was my cue to step in. I raised my hands as if to calm her down and gulped then cleared my throat.

"Ahem!" I started, calling her attention. She gave me a questioning glance. I blushed slightly embarrassed. "Um, I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding here." She raised an eyebrow then gave me a criticizing stare which made me even more uncomfortable. I sweated some.

"Don't tell me…" she started becoming sad. "You're his girlfriend aren't you?!"

"What?!" I squeaked. My cheeks now burned red and I knew that I was going to need more chocolate cake and cappuccinos ASAP. She threw her head back and began to overdramatically cry.

"Gah, I knew it, I knew it would be too good to be true. I was all ready to be yours and serve you but here you've already got a girlfriend."

"No, wait…" I spluttered but she just kept going. Ajisai meanwhile sipped her tea and muttered under her breath.

"What idiot's bright idea was it to give this airheaded diva a death note?" Light put up a hand and Misa noticed, quickly quieting down to wait and see what he had to say. He sighed heavily.

"As my younger sister was saying," he started.

"Sister?" questioned Misa giving me another look. Light continued, ignoring the interruption.

"I believe there's been a little misunderstanding here. Now, you've already met Ryuk and you've made the eye deal as well. Now use those two pieces of information to see if you can't figure it out." He brought his elbows up on the table and supported his chin on his laced together hands.

Misa took in what he had said trying to process it for a while, bringing her right index finger up to her chin in a thinking posture. Ajisai rolled her eyes.

"It's not that hard ya know!" she muttered. Misa took some time before she finally got the idea to look up and read Light's name and…

"I can still see your lifespan!" she gasped. She then started looking for Ryuk. "But then that means…" her eyes finally found him and then she looked down at me with a shocked expression. I blushed some as I waved. Her mouth fell open and I turned away scratching nervously at my head and fiddling with my hair.

"Well…now that you can see it, allow me to introduce myself," I started. I turned back to look at her, giving her the best smile I could manage. "My name is Lila Ranger and I…am Kira." There was a long and awkward silence before Misa spoke up again.

"So…it's not him?" she asked pointing to Light. I shrunk away some at that and laughed nervously.

"I'm afraid not but…he is a part of the team." There was another long pause.

"And you two aren't dating?" she asked again making sure. I sighed as did Light.

"No we're not dating," I confirmed. "His family was just nice enough to adopt me when I had nowhere else to go. But that's not important right now. This is a meeting between two Kira's so please…let's decide what we're going to do. Misa, do you still want to help us?" I asked rather tentatively. Misa took a while to answer. She then shook her head and sighed, turning to me with hopeful eyes.

"Of course I still want to help. I owe you…for killing the man who killed my parents. Exactly one year ago…he killed them both right in front of me during a robbery he was committing on our home," she glanced down at the table. "I wanted that man to pay for what he did but the trial dragged on forever and ever. Soon, opinions started surfacing that he was being falsely accused." At this she looked up at me with some tears from the memory in her eyes.

"That's when you did it. Kira…you…punished him for what he did to my parents and that's why, I'm indebted to you. I'll do whatever you want…you can even kill me if you can't use me anymore and I promise that I was very…very careful with the tapes and everything surrounding them. I was even going to hide out Owiyama in disguise to try and find you with my Shinigami eyes so neither of us would've been caught and…" I put up a hand to stop her from rambling. She did as was indicated of her and yielded her speech. I then held her within a fairly serious gaze.

"First of all Misa," I began. "There is no way that I will tolerate you throwing around this nonsense about being killed. Your life is more valuable than what you believe it to be so get that thought out of your head!" She nodded shocked at my sudden strength in words. "Also…I don't want to "Use" you. I'd rather make this a partnership than some slave drive so get that idea out of your head as well. Finally…I know what you were trying to do with the tapes and I thank you for being cautious however; we must now proceed with caution regarding what you've done. L is a tricky man to deal with and I don't think any of us wants to go into the slammer or be executed so now we have to discuss what happens next." Misa nodded again and sat up a little straighter.

"Of course, I'm all ears," she replied. I nodded back in reply.

"Good…now you know that I..." I paused lowering my voice so only the occupants of the table could hear, "Am Kira. Meanwhile Light over her," I jabbed a thumb in his direction and he nodded in acknowledgment, "Is our strategist. And finally, Aunt Ajisai who's beside you is the jailor of whomever we need out of the way and don't want to kill. She's already taking care of the FBI agents with the help of her home town. And you've already met Ryuk…he's my Shinigami and he helps out too whenever he feels up for it." Misa nodded.

"Oh that's right!" she exclaimed. "I almost forgot…you haven't seen my Shinigami yet so here." She looked about cautiously then slipped something underneath the table. We all reach under to touch the familiar texture of a black notebook and once we looked up again…there she was. When I saw Rem I had to admit that she was a lot easier to take in than when Ryuk made his first appearance. Maybe it was because we were in a Japanese café instead of my room on a stormy night with poor lighting. I nodded in her direction.

"And I assume that you must be Rem," I spoke without really thinking. She gave me a look of what I believed to be surprise.

"And how may I ask is it that you know my name when we've never met?" She gave Ryuk a look and I sighed knowing that this was coming. I caught sight of a waiter and flagged her over. Once she was near our table she gave us all a smile. I smiled back slightly nervous.

"Can I get another cappuccino and some more chocolate cake please?" I asked sweetly. Then I turned to Misa. "Would you like anything?" She seemed taken aback at first but then nodded and quickly looked through the menu. She chose a smile grilled sandwich and a cappuccino deluxe which made me change my order to the deluxe when I saw it had whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Light had sighed and ordered another coffee for himself while Ajisai asked for a simply glass of lemonade and I ordered a small apple tart for Ryuk. Once our orders were taken and she left Rem turned skeptical eyes on me.

"Trying to avoid something?" she questioned warily. Light answered her before I could.

"No, she just can't get through stress without an ounce of sugar as a fall back reassurance." I shrunk some in my seat under her gaze but Misa declared it was alright. I sighed and leaned back to think of how this whole mess was going to be resolved. First I had to tell her my story and then we had to strategize. I was just glad we caught her after her first broadcast otherwise I wouldn't know what to do.

It seemed to take forever for our order to get here. Light nodded gratefully to the lady and she left again as I rubbed my temples. As soon as my drink was in front of me I took a few calming sips to slow myself down and think. Finally, I sighed and leaned back again as the cappuccino did its job.

"Alright…before we can strategize," I started. "I think it's only fair that I tell you…the full truth about myself and what's going on here." I waited and Misa nodded as she too began her drink and bit into her sandwich. I cleared my throat. "It starts with…the end of one life…and the beginning of another."

From there I began to retell my tale once more. Misa was wide eyed and intrigued the entire time and when I mentioned the cat, Rem gave her own sign of recognition. As my story wound down to where we are I could see that Misa was practically bouncing on the edge of her seat with excitement and many questions. And wouldn't you know it; that's exactly what I was bombarded with after I finished and went back to my now half eaten cake.

"So like…you mean you've died before? That's really cool when you think about it and here I thought that everybody either goes to heaven or hell or nowhere after they die and yet here you are as living proof. What was it like? Oh wait you probably don't want me asking you something like that. So wait how does the whole English to Japanese language thing work. Are you speaking English now and it's somehow translating while you talk or do you like actually know Japanese now instead of English as if it were your own native tongue. And what's with the cat? Is he really a cat or does he just look like a cat because it's impossible to see his real face and if we did we'd disintegrate or something? Oh and…"

I began to tune her out some as I began to ponder whether the Cheshire cat actually was one of those un-seeable beings that would melt your face off or something else if you did see their true form. I'd only heard about it happening in movies and books and…aw hell…I'd probably buy into that logic now anyways. I was already reanimated so why not throw that onto the pile? Light elbowing me and clearing his voice was what brought me around again from my thoughts. When I looked up everyone was looking at me and I quickly began to go red in the face as I realized they were expecting some sort of answer to a question I hadn't heard.

"Um…" I said. Light and Ajisai sighed while Ryuk chuckled and Misa stared at me expectantly. Rem remained quiet. Light leaned over to whisper in my ear.

"She asked you if you knew how L would react to her broadcast?" he hissed. My cheeks burned red.

"Oh," I said embarrassed. "Right well…" I tried to recall exactly what had happened after the first broadcast specifically. "I believe L began to guess there was more than one Kira since the two were completely different. But I don't know how that will work with me being Kira. If it does happen then I guess we'll have to…try and mislead him somehow. It definitely won't be easy since he's one of smartest people I know in this world other than Light and Near who may or may not come in later depending on how things go." I shrunk back into my seat still embarrassed from not really knowing where to go with all of this.

Before, Misa had made two different broadcasts to contact Kira and then L had had Light respond to the second pretending to be Kira. However, that wouldn't work this time since I'd contacted Misa right after the first one. So honestly, I was at a loss and not even the cappuccino and chocolate cake I was consuming could help me there.

Light sighed beside me. Then he looked up at Ajisai and Misa with a serious look on his face.

"Well we do know that L will most likely respond to this in his own special way. However, we have to be careful where we tread from now on."

"Agreed," Ajisai spoke up. She cleared her throat. "From this point on we're all in this together I suppose and there's no backing out now. Might as well do things right. So Light…what about L's offer to join the task force in order to keep an eye on you and get your help? We can use that to our advantage." Light nodded.

"Yes. I think we should all be careful until I've discovered what L's thinking and what the task force's next move is. Ajisai I think you should remain with our family for a while so as not to make them get too suspicious of a sudden disappearance home." Ajisai nodded.

"Once again I agree. It would do no good if they went poking around near the prison. I've already made the town aware that if it's found, I will take full responsibility. In the end, I'm prepared to go to prison if need be." Misa's eyes seemed to sparkle at this.

"Wow Ms. Ajisai, you're so brave!" she exclaimed. Ajisai scoffed at her simplicity.

"Of course I am. I used to be in Lila's shoes as a Cheshire's candidate after all. I've been through hell and back sweetheart." Misa's eyes continued to sparkle. Rem regarded her with a look of respect.

"I see. So that's why you're helping her." she said simply. Ajisai just grunted a reply and turned back to her drink. I let out a long sigh but then pull myself together.

"So!" I start suddenly. "I guess this means everyone but me is on standby?" Light nods an affirmative and Ryuk and Ajisai seem to agree but Misa seems confused.

"But…I have a death note too," she whined. I sigh and hold her within a sympathetic yet serious gaze.

"I know but if you want to work with us and not get caught we have to get to know you first and stuff like that. After all if you're caught prematurely this could end badly. I think you and I should get to know one another better, Kira to Kira? So we should work together in the next little while until Light comes up with some helpful information, okay?" Misa thought about this for a while until finally she sighed and nodded.

"Alright, I guess that is pretty smart. So we'll just hang or something…wait! Don't you have a job or something?" she asked suddenly. I cringed.

"Well no…not exactly," I admitted reluctantly. "So I guess we could do things on your schedule." She nodded while smiling.

"Okay! I'll call you up tomorrow then and we can get started!" she spoke enthusiastically. I nodded slightly uneasy at how soon she wanted to meet.

"Um…sure!" I stated. Misa giggled like a school girl and I glanced at Rem who was giving me a look that said that if I did anything to harm Misa then I'd be in for it. Like I didn't already know she had a thing for her. I sighed and let myself slump down in my seat; my forehead meeting the table.

"Good then I guess we can adjourn this meeting and go our separate ways after finishing our stuff. Good talk everyone; good talk." With that I lifted my head and like everyone else began to finish our final order of things. Misa of course tried more than once to start a good conversation with Light and I had to laugh at how uncomfortable she was making him in public though he'd never show it.

Finally we finished up and Ajisai – since the location had been her idea and all – paid for everything as we said our goodbyes. After Misa had left and Light and I were in Ajisai's car on the way home, I felt slightly better yet slightly horrified with what could come next for all of us. I was already treading on eggshells as it was after my first two big mistakes in this operation and I wasn't looking forward to the whole being imprisoned by L thing although with my minor suspicion level vs. Light's, I suppose he and Misa would be the only ones caught that is if Light didn't just hand himself over like last time for the plot. I sighed and groaned dragging my hands down my face in the back seat.

"God, why does my afterlife have to suck so bad?" I wonder to myself as we drive through Tokyo all the way home.


End file.
